Tracy Mcgrady

The 76ers may not have traded Larry Hughes yet, but it certainly appears as if they're still trying to. An NBA source confirmed last night that the Sixers placed another call yesterday to the Toronto Raptors to see if they were willing to part with swingman Tracy McGrady and a No. 1 pick for Hughes. Again, the Raptors said no. Despite wanting Hughes, the Raptors reportedly believe that they can get more than Hughes for McGrady if they bide their time. McGrady, 20 and scheduled to become a free agent this summer, no longer desires to stay with the Raptors.

Larry Brown, the Sixers' coach and head of basketball operations, is contemplating a trade that would send Larry Hughes, the second-year guard, to the Toronto Raptors for guard-forward Tracy McGrady and a first-round draft pick. League sources said that Brown, fed up with Hughes' play - mostly on defense - had hardened his stance on moving the guard out of Philadelphia and began talks with Toronto about a week ago. The Raptors offered McGrady for Hughes straight up, an offer the Sixers rejected.

IF BEN Franklin had had his way, the Washington Redskins would be hosting the Philadelphia Turkeys on this upcoming NFL "Monday Night Football. " Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird, not the eagle. How appropriate. Wayne E. Williams, Camden Yo, NBA stars! I am very upset about the U.S. basketball team ending its perfect streak in international play. The rest of the world is catching up with us, and we cannot sit back and watch it happen. I hope this is a wakeup call to those players in the NBA who should be representing our country rather than making excuses why they cannot.

The NBA trade deadline remains more than a month away, but the 76ers seem to be intensifying their attempts to make a trade. The buzz last night had the Sixers and the Orlando Magic talking about a prospective trade that would involve the Sixers' Larry Hughes and the Magic's Corey Maggette. There also was speculation the Sixers have talked to the New York Knicks about a deal that could involve John Wallace. That comes on the heels of word the Sixers contacted the Toronto Raptors earlier, again inquiring about the availability of forward Tracy McGrady.

Reserve Svetlana Abrosimova scored 20 points, and Swin Cash added 18 to lead the Seattle Storm to a 111-65 victory over the Tulsa Shock on Saturday night, the biggest rout in WNBA history. Seattle's 46-point victory topped by one point a win by the Houston Comets over Washington in 1998. "We played the best team and they just spanked us," said coach Nolan Richardson . "It was the worst spanking we've had to tell you the truth. " Los Angeles Sparks forward Tina Thompson became the WNBA's all-time leading scorer against the San Antonio Silver Stars in Los Angeles.

Houston center Yao Ming leads Miami's Shaquille O'Neal by more than 50,000 votes in the race for the No. 1 overall spot in the final days of NBA All-Star balloting. With voting closing Sunday, Yao had 2,153,039 votes to lead the Western Conference, while O'Neal topped the Eastern Conference with 2,099,201. The closest race for a starting spot through yesterday was for the second forward spot in the East. New Jersey's Vince Carter had 1,505,169 votes, followed by Orlando's Grant Hill with 1,273,846 and Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal with 1,167,698.

His team down double digits, Allen Iverson sat on the bench, Tracy McGrady to his left, Antoine Walker to his right, Michael Jordan one seat down. It was over, his fun reign as MVP of all things NBA. Now it was time to defer to that seemingly perfect player, the one who speaks fluent Italian, who has the beautiful wife and the bleach-white teeth to match the clean image. Yet something happened to Kobe Bryant last night that Iverson could not understand. The crowd at the First Union Center booed Bryant.

A blockbuster trade involving Tracy McGrady of the Orlando Magic and Steve Francis of the Houston Rockets dominated the NBA rumor mill yesterday. ESPN reported on its Web site that a McGrady-Francis deal would be made, provided that none of the other key players in the trade were selected in today's expansion draft by the Charlotte Bobcats. The trade would send Juwan Howard to Houston with McGrady, while Orlando would get Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato. For salary-cap reasons, Tyronn Lue would also go to Houston in the trade, according to ESPN.

Brooklyn, N.Y.-reared basketball greats, including 76ers ambassador of basketball World B. Free and Connie Hawkins, joined real estate developer Bruce Ratner yesterday to support his bid to buy the New Jersey Nets and move them across the Hudson and East rivers. "Brooklyn Nets! Let's go!" said Free, who grew up in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood before going on to a 13-season NBA career, including four with the Sixers. Ratner, the developer of Brooklyn's 16-acre MetroTech Center, heads one of three investment groups that filed bids last week to buy the Nets from YankeeNets, the conglomerate that owns them.

Allen Iverson finally found a situation that could whip him one-on-one. When the 76ers star visited survivors of Hurricane Katrina in Houston, his heart was touched. He met a man who lost all his worldly possessions in the hurricane. Youngsters whose lives have been turned upside down by Katrina's destruction wanted nothing more than to meet the six-time NBA all-star. While many only see the fierce NBA persona of Iverson, there is a sensitive, reflective side, one that was clearly evident as he spoke to reporters last night at the Wachovia Center.

CARMELO ANTHONY scored 25 points in his return to the lineup, Landry Fields added 16 of his 18 in a flawless first half, and the New York Knicks snapped a three-game losing streak with a 113-86 victory over the visiting Detroit Pistons last night. Tyson Chandler had 17 points and Amare Stoudemire 15 for the Knicks, whose slumbering offense awoke in just their second victory in 11 games. They shot 60 percent from the field - amazingly, the first time they bettered 50 percent all season - and fell just a point short of matching their highest-scoring effort.

ATLANTA PLAYED zone defense. Tracy McGrady found his zone. And with that, Miami's unbeaten start came to an end. Joe Johnson scored 21 points, McGrady hit a pair of big three-pointers in the fourth quarter and the Hawks recovered from early 10-point deficits to beat the Heat, 100-92, last night. McGrady and Al Horford each scored 16 for the Hawks (4-1), who opened the final period on a 15-3 run to take control. And McGrady made perhaps the two biggest plays of the night in the final minutes, first throwing a lob to Josh Smith for a dunk, then hitting a three-pointer that gave the Hawks a 93-84 lead with 2:26 left.

Joe Johnson scored 21 points, Tracy McGrady hit a pair of big three-pointers in the fourth quarter, and the Atlanta Hawks ended Miami's perfect start by beating the Heat, 100-92, on Monday night in Miami. McGrady and Al Horford each scored 16 for the Hawks (4-1), who opened the final period on a 15-3 run to take control. And McGrady made perhaps the two biggest plays of the night in the final minutes, first throwing a lob to Josh Smith for a dunk, then hitting a three-pointer that gave the Hawks a 93-84 lead with 2 minutes, 26 seconds left.

While the New York Knicks maneuvered to land Tyson Chandler, and the Los Angeles Clippers finagled a deal to land Chris Paul and team him with Blake Griffin, the 76ers - drum roll, please - re-signed Thaddeus Young and Spencer Hawes. The Sixers have chosen to stand pat, bringing back 12 players from a playoff team that improved by 14 wins over the previous season. In a city that has seen the football and baseball teams dominate free agency in recent seasons - with mixed and varying results - the Sixers' philosophy under president Rod Thorn and coach Doug Collins is to maximize the in-house talent and see where it leads.

All Pistons coach John Kuester could do before last night's game against the 76ers was smile, plead ignorance and move on. Earlier in the day, five of his players missed the team's shootaround and two others arrived late. According to the Detroit News , five players decided to stage a protest after the organization failed to complete any deals by Thursday's trade deadline. Tayshaun Prince, Tracy McGrady, Richard Hamilton, Chris Wilcox and Ben Wallace were not present for the 11 a.m. shootaround at the Wells Fargo Center.

Popular belief is that there is about as much coaching in the NBA as there are plows clearing city side streets during a snowstorm. Someone forgot to tell Doug Collins about the supposed lack of coaching. To label Collins a micromanager when it comes to coaching would be a terrible overstatement to micromanagers around the corporate world. But there is no detail in a basketball game or practice that Collins doesn't see a way to do differently, or better. Saturday night, with his team holding a three-point lead against the host Detroit Pistons and just 5.8 seconds remaining, Collins informed his team that he wanted "contact switches.

Former Olympian Antonio Pettigrew , 42, a sprinter stripped of a gold medal after admitting to doping, was found dead in the backseat of his locked car early Tuesday, Chatham County (N.C.) authorities reported. Authorities said they are unsure if his death was accidental or a suicide after his car, containing evidence that the North Carolina assistant track coach had taken sleeping pills, was found parked by a bridge. COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Penn State senior tailback Evan Royster is on the watch list for the Walter Camp Football Foundation's player of the year award and teammate Jack Crawford , a junior defensive end, was nominated for the Chuck Bednarik award, the nation's defensive player of the year.

NOW HERE'S a foursome for the history books. Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller played a round of golf yesterday as part of the dedication of a new course in one of Michigan's roughest areas. The group was in Benton Harbor playing at the Golf Club at Harbor Shores, which was designed by Jack. The four were playing one another for a million bucks, which was being donated to the Benton Harbor First Tee chapter and the Boys & Girls Club. (There's a joke here about Tiger Woods and legendary foursomes, but we'll pass.

Reserve Svetlana Abrosimova scored 20 points, and Swin Cash added 18 to lead the Seattle Storm to a 111-65 victory over the Tulsa Shock on Saturday night, the biggest rout in WNBA history. Seattle's 46-point victory topped by one point a win by the Houston Comets over Washington in 1998. "We played the best team and they just spanked us," said coach Nolan Richardson . "It was the worst spanking we've had to tell you the truth. " Los Angeles Sparks forward Tina Thompson became the WNBA's all-time leading scorer against the San Antonio Silver Stars in Los Angeles.

Jennifer Yee hit a two-run home run and Melanie Matthews doubled in two more runs as Canada (2-3) snapped the United States' 22-game winning streak in the World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City with a 5-2 victory Sunday night in a game that had more than three hours of rain delays. The U.S. pitching staff hadn't allowed a run or an extra-base hit in 28 innings in this year's World Cup before Matthews laced a double through the infield that got past rightfielder Kaitlin Cochran . That started a five-run third inning for the Canadians, the most runs allowed in a World Cup game by the Americans - let alone an inning.