NBA commissioner David Stern told SI.com he understands both sides of the Eddy Curry DNA testing controversy, but he said he doesn't see any harm in a team asking for the test, given the financial commitment given to the player.

The Chicago Bulls want to test the 22-year-old center who has been sidelined since March with heart arryhythmia, to see if his medical condition could be fatal. Curry has been negotiating a new contract with the team and declined the test on the grounds that it would enable the team to search for other pre-existing medical conditions that could hurt the value of his contract.

Stern suggested to SI.com that the teams do the testing in rookie camp: "Let's put it back in rookie camp. If you're thinking about drafting a player, you do blood [tests], you do X-rays, skeletal, you look for scars, for breaks, for weaknesses, for disease. I don't know what you would be looking for with DNAs, but given the size of the contract and the importance of the draft pick, I think that diagnostic testing that tells you whether you're making a good investment is not a bad idea."

Stern also said safeguards should be in place to ensure the results of DNA testing are controlled by the player.

"Always," Stern told SI.com. "It should only be dispersed with the consent of the player. I guess the player, for limited purposes, can make it available to the team, but I'm a firm believer in medical privacy."

Guard Jannero Pargo has accepted the Bulls' one-year qualifying offer, and agent Mark Bartelstein said the former Robeson High standout will sign a contract Friday or Monday. Pargo will make $875,000.

The New York Post reported Thursday that the Knicks' sign-and-trade proposal for center Eddy Curry, rejected weeks ago by Bulls general manager John Paxson, would have sent Tim Thomas and Michael Sweetney to the Bulls. Curry is expected to accept the Bulls' one-year qualifying offer and has until late Saturday to do so. The Bulls haven't ruled out extending the deadline, according to a source.

Bulls free-agent center Eddy Curry will slip through Isiah Thomas' mitts again. The Post has learned the Knicks offered Chicago a sign-and-trade package of Tim Thomas and Michael Sweetney for the ailing big center, but has been rejected repeatedly by GM John Paxson.

Barring a trade, Curry, suffering from heart irregularities, is expected to sign the Bulls' one-year, $5 million qualifying offer before Saturday's deadline, according to his Jersey-based attorney, Ed Milstein.

Curry has been commiserating on the phone almost daily with his best friend, Knick guard, Jamal Crawford, who's worked behind the scenes to get him to New York.

"They're not trading him," one team executive said.

The Knicks offered the Bulls a package that would start Curry at more than $13M and give Chicago cap relief after season. Tim Thomas' contract ($13.5M) and Sweetney's ($2.1M) expire after the season. Isiah has offered Thomas in multiple deals because of his tradable contract and the Knick glut at swingman.

Jerome Stanley, the agent of late Celtic Reggie Lewis, is scared that the Eddy Curry/Bulls DNA despute will go to arbitration and the arbitrator tells the Bulls they simply can't compel him.

He recalled the ride through Boston with Lewis' family in a limousine on the way to the funeral as one of the toughest things he ever had to do. Stanley said Tuesday he wishes now that DNA testing had been an option.

"I've seen this movie before," he said. "Eddy Curry and his family and his agent do not believe he can drop dead and die. You know what? He can drop dead and die. It goes just like that.

"If I'm the team, let the insurance be your guide," Stanley said. "The insurance won't insure it, that should tell you something. They've got the biggest group of risk managers.

"Now maybe they're wrong," he added. "But if you lose the bet, you don't just lose the player. The player dies."

The extraordinary events surrounding the Bulls' contract negotiations with center Eddy Curry are fast-breaking to what figures to be an ugly standoff within the next week, one that now seems almost certain to end the Bulls' career of the Thornwood High product.

It's a scenario perhaps unprecedented in the NBA: an arbitration ruling in favor of Curry may be the only way he will play again for the Bulls and even then it would be just for this season and at the discretion of a team Curry says he doesn't care to play for anymore. A peaceful resolution, considering recent comments from both sides, seems unlikely. Instead, here are the most likely scenarios: Curry is traded in the next week, he is barred from playing this season or he is sitting restively on the Bulls' bench.

Fred Hoiberg, who is rehabilitating from open-heart surgery, said he isn't well-versed on Eddy Curry's heart troubles. He didn't want to speak out of turn about Curry's refusal to undergo genetic testing that could determine if he is disposed to developing a potentially life-threatening heart condition.

Nevertheless, in a phone interview Monday, Hoiberg gave a simplified view on medical tests, perhaps because he believes one saved his life. An echocardiogram administered in a required exam for life insurance revealed he had an enlarged aortic root in his heart.

In late June, a short while after Hoiberg completed his 10th NBA season and his second for the Timberwolves, he had surgery to repair his heart. Doctors inserted a pacemaker later in the summer.

"For me it was an echocardiogram that saved my life," Hoiberg said. "For [Eddy], it might be a DNA test. To me, it seems like a no-brainer."

The cardiologist who in June gave Eddy Curry clearance to resume playing basketball said DNA tests requested by the Bulls are unwarranted because Curry's heart is structurally sound for an athlete of his size.

In a telephone interview from his Los Angeles office, Dr. David Cannom said Monday he attributed the benign arrhythmia the 6-foot-11-inch center experienced March 30?that led to an array of tests and inconclusive findings?to a magnesium deficiency and the ingestion of legal supplements with high levels of caffeine.

"There's a standard being applied that wouldn't be applied if he weren't a $60 million athlete," Cannom said of the Bulls' request for genetic testing. "This is beyond clinical routine care."

Curry declined to comment on specifics of his ongoing medical saga on the advice of his agent and lawyer. But he said he is satisfied with Cannom's diagnosis, especially since it was supported by two other California cardiologists in recent weeks and also was consistent with the opinion of Boston-based cardiologist Mark Estes, who examined Curry in April.

The only specialist who apparently doesn't agree is Barry Maron, considered one of the world's leading experts in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. He recommended the genetic test with hopes of ruling out the condition, and the Bulls are adhering to his opinion.

"There's one guy who isn't sure," Curry said. "I can live with that because of what the other doctors say."

Bulls general manager John Paxson declined to comment. Last week he indicated the Bulls will compel Curry to submit to a genetic test during the team's physical exams Monday?assuming Curry accepts the team's one-year qualifying offer of $5.14 million.

"I'm definitely prepared to do that," Curry said of accepting the offer. "One year, $5 million isn't the worst thing."

Curry's lawyer, Alan Milstein, has said Curry again will refuse the DNA test and predicted the case will end up in arbitration. The NBA Players Association vowed Monday to back Curry.

Union spokesman Dan Wasserman said the association doesn't oppose a player voluntarily agreeing to DNA testing.

"But there is nothing in the collective bargaining agreement that allows a team to compel a player to undergo DNA testing," Wasserman said. "It's voluntary or it's not going to happen. And we'll back that up."

The Bulls have gone beyond requesting Eddy Curry submit to DNA testing that could determine whether he is disposed genetically to a potentially fatal heart ailment. They practically are demanding it.

But an attorney who represents Curry said Friday his client will refuse the test and the case eventually will end up in arbitration.

"Serious privacy rights are at issue," Alan Milstein said in a telephone interview. Milstein, based in Philadelphia, is a litigator in sports law, insurance law and bioethics. advertisement  

"We are not about to waive privacy for Mr. Curry or set a precedent for any other NBA player," Milstein added.

Bulls operations chief John Paxson made it clear Friday the team wants Eddy Curry to take a DNA test before allowing him back on the court.

And an attorney representing Curry was just as adamant that the test is not going to happen.

The legal wrangling over Curry, who missed the final month of last season with an irregular heartbeat, has intensified with training camp opening Oct. 3. It appears certain Curry will play for the Bulls' $5.14 million qualifying offer and then become an unrestricted free agent next summer. At that point, it appears Curry will leave the Bulls.

''We feel if Eddy is under contract to us and accepts the qualifying offer that we have the right to ask him to do certain things to make sure he's capable of playing,'' Paxson said.

The Bulls officially signed Sacramento free agent Darius Songaila to a two-year contract Thursday.

The deal is worth $2.2 million for the first year and contains a player option worth $2.4 million for the second year. More than likely, the 6-foot-9 forward will opt out and become an unrestricted free agent next year.

As a favor to Songaila, the Kings rescinded their qualifying offer on Wednesday, turning him from a restricted to unrestricted free agent. That allowed the Bulls to sign outright the 27-year-old native of Lithuania, without having to start with an offer sheet, and it also enabled Songaila to get a short-term deal. Offer sheets to restricted free agents are required to be for at least three seasons.

?This is a very significant signing for us,? Bulls general manager John Paxson said. ?We like a lot of things about him. The fact that he is a skilled (power forward), can handle it, can pass it. We feel we have good perimeter players who can drive and dish. We need guys who can catch and shoot. He?s going to be great for us.?

Songaila averaged 7.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and shot 52.7 percent from the field last season for the Kings, his second in the NBA.

At $2.2 million, Songaila appears to be a bargain for the Bulls. Circumstances this summer left him in a lurch and the Bulls took advantage.

When free agency began July 1, Sacramento expected to match any offer sheet given to Songaila. But when Shareef Abdur-Rahim failed a physical with New Jersey, the Kings used their midlevel exception to snap up Abdur-Rahim. Suddenly, Songaila?s roster spot with Sacramento was gone, and most NBA teams already had spent their free-agent money.

?At that point, everybody was foaming at the mouth to get him,? said Mark Bartelstein, Songaila?s Chicago-based agent. ?If he had been unrestricted, he would have at least gotten the full midlevel (worth $5 million). He would have gotten a $35 million (multi-year) contract). If we were going to go somewhere short term, we felt he should go to the best team and the best situation he could.?

Bartelstein said free-agent guard Jannero Pargo will re-sign with the Bulls next week unless a significant offer comes his way in the next few days.