Yet another new face was added to the Milwaukee Bucks' locker room Tuesday when the team announced that Steve Condon had been hired as new athletic trainer.

Condon replaces Troy Wetzel, who retired after a 12-year career in the National Basketball Association. Wetzel had spent the last three seasons with the Bucks.

Since the end of last season, when the Bucks posted a 42-40 record and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the New Jersey Nets, the Bucks have undergone an almost total overhaul. They have replaced their general manager, head coach, two assistant coaches and now their trainer. Several new players have also been added to the roster.

Condon joins the Bucks from Marquette University, where he spent the last two years as the school's head athletic trainer. With the Bucks, Condon will oversee the day-to-day prevention, evaluation and rehabilitation of injuries and will also coordinate the team's travel and hotel arrangements for away games.

The Milwaukee Bucks have hired Jim Todd in an assistant coach / player development role, the club announced Thursday.

Todd, 51, joins Mike Schuler and Sam Mitchell on new coach Terry Porter's staff, and Porter expects to name one more assistant to complete the staff.

"Jim has taught the game of basketball on every level," Porter said in a statement. "He understands what it takes to win at this level, and I know he'll play an integral role on our staff."

Todd served as a coaching consultant for the Bucks last season, and he was an assistant with Milwaukee under coach Chris Ford from 1996-'98. He followed Ford to the Clippers in 1998 and was named interim coach of the team on Feb. 3, 2000.

USA team member Ray Allen admitted he "started despising" coach George Karl in Milwaukee before Allen was traded to Seattle from the Bucks.

"George, when he first came to Milwaukee, he was every bit a players' coach. He listened, he responded to things we needed, things we wanted and everyone wanted to play hard for him," Allen said of Karl, who was fired last month.

"If we were tired, he made us work harder. If we needed a day off, he made us practice. It always seemed like when something went wrong he'd bash us in the papers . . . I started despising him . . . I got tired of that after a while, and my hatred started growing."

Desmond Mason answered the phone, his voice fighting through cell-phone static and baggage-claim clatter.

He had just landed in Miami, where he would play in Alonzo Mourning's charity game. Just one stop on a jet-set schedule for one of the NBA's highest fliers, known as much for his springs as his smile.

It may be the off-season, but Mason is still going coast to coast. Just part of a bigger transition game the past few months in which he has gone from a piece of the Sonics' future to a part of the Milwaukee Bucks' foundation.

This summer he has been between seasons, and between cities. He's living in Maple Valley, yet likely will begin discussing a contract extension with Milwaukee this month.

That makes this a swan song of a summer in Seattle, perhaps his final months in the city where he started his NBA career.

"It has been a little bit tough," Mason said. "We're probably going to put the house on the market. We're closing a chapter on our life, which is tough because we had a great time here and we loved our home."

But his future is in Milwaukee. There's the possibility of a contract extension, the probability of a starting role.

Terry Porter sought out a trusted friend and experienced coach on Wednesday, choosing 62-year-old Mike Schuler to join his Milwaukee Bucks' coaching staff.

The 40-year-old Porter, named head coach of the Bucks last week, played under Schuler for two-plus seasons in Portland in the late 1980s.

A decade later, he was reunited with Schuler at Minnesota, where Porter was a veteran point guard and Schuler served as an assistant coach to Flip Saunders.

"I do remember him always being prepared, always running an organized practice," Porter said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. "When I was still playing in San Antonio, he was scouting for some teams in the league, and we stayed in contact.

"We went out for lunch a couple times and just talked about coaching. The trust is there, and we've had numerous conversations about it. I think he was eager about the opportunity."

Schuler has spent 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association, including five seasons as a head coach with the Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers.

After winning eight of their last nine regular-season games and after giving the eventual Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Nets a real scare in the playoffs, the Milwaukee Bucks seemed to be on the right track.

With some off-season tweaking, the Bucks figured to be as good as any team in the East next season. Now, they'll be as bad as any team in the East - or West. The Bucks aren't in shambles, but they're darn close.

They will likely open next season with a rookie - T.J. Ford - starting at point guard. They'll have a shooting guard who is a more of a small forward in Desmond Mason. They'll have an underachieving small forward in Tim Thomas and an even bigger underachiever at power forward in Joe Smith. Their starting center will be either Joel Przybilla or Dan Gadzuric, as if it matters.

If that isn't bad enough, they've just hired a coach - Terry Porter - who has never been a head coach at any level. Can you say lottery? Can you say No. 1 pick? Yes, it could be a bone-chilling winter for Bucks' fans.

But, again, it should have never come to this.

The Bucks could have avoided an inevitable free fall by simply giving Gary Payton the respect he warranted. Payton was, unequivocally, the Bucks' best player last season. He was the second-best point guard in the East behind New Jersey's Jason Kidd. Payton is a certifiable Hall of Famer.

But Payton made $13 million last season, and the Bucks weren't about to pay him that amount again. That was understandable. Payton is 34 and he also wanted a four-year deal. You can be sure the Bucks brass had nightmarish visions of Anthony Mason dancing in their heads. They weren't going to overpay another player. So what happens? They make a low-ball offer to Payton.

"It was slightly more than that,'' Aaron Goodwin, Payton's agent, told me when I asked if the Bucks offered around $8M per year to his client. "It was a lot less than he could have gotten from some other teams.'' Goodwin went on to say Payton had an offer from Portland for nearly $52 million - or $13M a season. The Miami Heat, Goodwin said, were prepared to offer Payton a $44M deal - or $11M a season. And the Indiana Pacers seriously considered giving Payton $40M - or $10M a season.

But all of these deals broke down for various reasons, including the Bucks' refusal to do some sign-and-trade arrangements. In the end, Payton signed with the L.A. Lakers. It wasn't about the money. Payton wanted to be on a title-contending team, which the Lakers certainly are.

But here's the kicker to this story: Payton still was prepared to stay with the Bucks. Contrary to all the disinformation you may have been fed by some other local sports columnists or read on your favorite Web Site, Payton's mind-set was to re-sign with the Bucks. Contrary to all those false reports, Payton didn't want to leave Milwaukee.

Hardly anyone who knew Terry Porter during his high school days figured he would spend any time in the National Basketball Association.

The skinny kid at Milwaukee South Division was just another decent player, one who might have gone completely unnoticed if Dick Bennett had stayed home instead of deciding to scout a WIAA tournament game between Cudahy and South Division one night in 1981.

On that fateful night, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point coach was sizing up a prospect from Cudahy when his wife, Anne, turned to him.

"She said, 'I don't know what guy you're looking at, but you better start looking at No. 30 on the white team,' " Bennett recalled, referring to South's uniform color. "When she said that, I started watching Terry.

"Terry's name was not being bandied around, and he fouled out in the game (his last high school game) and only had seven points. But I loved the way he handled 'em. Remember, I'm recruiting a guy to Stevens Point, not to the NBA.

"The rest is history. We got him up right away for a visit, we got him to commit and his career just took off."

Dick Bennett was in Pullman, Wash., on Thursday, working diligently in his new job as basketball coach of the Washington State Cougars.

But if Bennett had not accepted the Cougars position earlier this year, he would have been Terry Porter's first choice to join the Milwaukee Bucks coaching staff.

Porter, a former star under Bennett at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the mid-1980s, was named as the Bucks head coach on Wednesday.

"If I had still been retired, I would have gone with him to help him out for a few years," said Bennett, who led the University of Wisconsin to the NCAA Final Four in 2000. "I definitely would have, because I think that much of him.

"I feel it's very important that he is surrounded with people he trusts. And I'm not a big NBA fan, at all, but to help him and work with players, I would have done that."

It's going to take some time before the Milwaukee Bucks see any meaningful change in their business relationship with the Bradley Center, its home since 1988, according to team owner Herb Kohl.

Kohl said he remained optimistic a new deal could be reached with Bradley Center officials. The Democratic senator said he met last week with Ulice Payne Jr., chairman of the Bradley Center board, and that more meetings have been scheduled.

"He's been very interested in doing whatever it takes to improve our situation at the Bradley Center," Kohl said.

Kohl said he did not expect to renew the current lease the team has with the Bradley Center until "conditions of our tenancy change. And that's not going to happen soon."

The team's lease expires Sept. 30, 2004. The team pays no rent at the Bradley Center and gets a share of concessions and suite revenue from all Bradley Center events.

Kohl said last month it was time to begin serious talks with the Bradley Center and said the franchise needed a new deal and an improved venue.

Terry Porter's lack of bench experience might have been considered a liability in his pursuit of the Milwaukee Bucks' head coaching job.

But the 40-year-old Milwaukee native, named Wednesday as the eighth coach in franchise history, never thought of it that way.

Porter instead focused on the experience he had gained in 17 years as a National Basketball Association player, and a seemingly natural ability to share his knowledge with the league's rising stars.

"My playing career stands for itself," said Porter, who spent just one year as an assistant with the Sacramento Kings before being named the Bucks coach. "Some of the things that made me a great player will make me a great coach, as far as my work ethic, my time commitment and my personal drive to be better."

Porter need not look very far to find examples of successful NBA players who have made the leap from the court to the coaching hot seat. Orlando's Doc Rivers, Indiana's Isiah Thomas and New Jersey's Byron Scott are a few of the prominent names to make the switch in the last decade.

"Doc Rivers played point guard, so I think that's crucial," said Porter, who also was a point guard with four different NBA teams. "The current players are getting younger and younger, and they have to identify with the coaches to buy in. I think that (being an ex-player) helps tremendously."

Porter had breakfast at the Pfister Hotel on Wednesday with Bucks owner and Sen. Herb Kohl, team general manager Larry Harris and rookie point guard T.J. Ford.

Later in the day, a resplendently dressed Porter was taking the stage at the Cousins Center to be introduced as the successor to ousted coach George Karl.

The Bucks awarded Porter with a four-year contract estimated to be worth nearly $6 million, according to a team source. Porter also has certain financial incentives included in the deal, payoffs for playoff appearances and individual honors such as coach of the year awards.