When Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin let Michael Jordan go in May, he also bid goodbye to the franchise's drawing card, a fact highlighted yesterday when the NBA released its 2003-04 schedule.

None of the Wizards' 82 games is set to be television nationally, a snub common in Washington before Jordan's decision to leave the front office and play for the Wizards the last two seasons. Wizards games frequently were broadcast during those seasons, even though Washington failed to make the playoffs.

The league's broadcast partners -- ESPN, ABC and TNT -- revise their schedules during the season, so the Wizards could be added to their schedules if they emerge as an appealing draw.

Washington opens the season Oct. 29 in Jordan's home town of Chicago against the Bulls, like the Wizards one of the NBA's youngest teams. Then, over the next few weeks, they will host Cleveland and No. 1 pick LeBron James and a slew of the league's elite teams (New Jersey, Dallas, Philadelphia, San Antonio and Detroit). The first month's home schedule is so chock full of top-tier teams that there might not be much of a drop in attendance from the past 82 home games, which were all sellouts, in large part because of Jordan.

New coach Eddie Jordan faces his former team and defending Eastern Conference champion New Jersey in the home opener on Nov. 1. Two weeks later, the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs come to town, followed by James and the Cavaliers four days later.

Warriors point guard Gilbert Arenas, who is on his way to becoming a Washington Wizard, said one of the main reasons he didn't re-sign with Golden State was because he felt disrespected by owner Chris Cohan.

Arenas told radio station KNBR on Monday that his decision to a sign an offer sheet with the Wizards "came down to trust. ... I just couldn't do it."

Arenas, who was a restricted free agent, signed a six-year, $65 million offer sheet with the Wizards late last week. The Warriors have 15 days to decide whether or not to match the offer. However, for the Warriors to match, they would have to shed approximately $18 million from their payroll. General manager Garry St. Jean has all but conceded the Warriors won't be able to do so.

Arenas, the NBA's Most Improved Player, said he would have re-signed with the Warriors at a reduced price had Cohan given him an assurance he would receive a bigger payday down the line. The Warriors, constrained by the rules of the collective bargaining agreement, could offer Arenas a salary starting at approximately $4.9 million. He will make approximately $8.5 million in 2003-04 with Washington.

Had Arenas signed a one-year contract with the Warriors, he would have been eligible to sign the maximum allowable contract with them next summer.

"I don't know the guy (Cohan) personally," Arenas said. "I only know St. Jean and (executive director of basketball operations) Otis Smith. They can tell me everything I want to hear but if the guy who I do not know can tell me in my face the deal will get done no matter how I play ... that's all I wanted to hear."

According to sources, the Wizards have planned from the beginning of this offseason to sign two free agent point guards. Gilbert Arenas was first on the Wizards? offseason shopping list. Now that Arenas has signed, Wizards? GM Ernie Grunfeld has turned his focus to Orlando Magic free agent Darrell Armstrong.

The 35 year old Armstrong, who has spent his entire nine-year career with the Orlando Magic, was viewed as a fallback option if the Wizards were unable to land Arenas. It appears now the Wizards are prepared to offer the veterans minimum to Armstrong. The Wizards have zero cap room left after inking Arenas. The most they can offer Armstrong is the nine-year veteran?s minimum of $1 million. The Wizards are unlikely to land Armstrong if another team makes a larger financial offer.

On Tuesday, Arenas signed the Wizards offer sheet of a six years, $63.75 million contract starting at $8.5 million. The Golden State Warriors, who drafted Arenas in the second round of the 2001 draft, have until August 6 to match Arenas? contract. It appears very unlikely the Warriors will match the Wizards? offer sheet given they would have to clear more than $20 million in salaries, an almost impossible task under current salary cap provisions.

If Armstrong is signed, he would add to an already crowded Wizards? backcourt. The Wizards have Arenas and drafted Maryland alum Steve Blake with their second round draft pick. The team also has Larry Hughes and Juan Dixon, both of whom would likely will lose playing time to Arenas. While the Wizards like what they they?ve seen from Blake in the Boston summer league, it appears they would like more experience at the backup point guard position. Blake will still sign with the Wizards, however would probably be carried on the inactive list for most of the season. Armstrong averaged 11.7 points and 5.1 assists for the Magic last season.

The Orlando Magic have now changed everything except their uniforms. Check that: Next Friday at city hall, they will unveil their new apparel for the upcoming season.

The Magic have been making more alterations lately than J-Lo's dress designers. Last season's plan went out of fashion quickly.

When their off-season ends this week, they will have brought in eight new players -- including three new starters -- over the past six months and have become so young that they may need chaperones.

The Magic completed their starting lineup on Wednesday by signing free-agent point guard Tyronn Lue, who, at 26, is practically an elder statesman on the club.

Lue, though, looks like a ballboy and is nine years younger than Darrell Armstrong, the longtime Orlando fan favorite whom he made expendable.

The average age of players on the team last season was 28; this season, it's 24. At 30, Andrew DeClercq and Juwan Howard are now the oldest players on the active roster.

The Orlando Magic have signed free agent guard Tyronn Lue, General Manager John Gabriel announced. Per team policy, terms of the deal are not disclosed.

Realizing the importance of the point guard position, we are ecstatic about signing Tyronn,? says Gabriel. ?He had many options, but in the end him coming to Orlando was the right fit for everyone.?

Lue (6?, 178, 5/3/77, Ta-Ron Loo) appeared in 75 regular season games with Washington last season, averaging 8.6 ppg., 3.5 apg. and 2.0 rpg. in 26.5 minpg. He started in 24 outings, averaging 11.6 ppg., 5.0 apg., 2.9 rpg. and 1.08 stlpg. in 36.2 minpg. during that span. Lue ranked fourth in the NBA in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.42). He scored in double figures 28 times and led the Wizards in assists in 16 games. Lue notched his first career double-double in 2002-03, notching 18 points and a career-high 11 assists at Indiana on Feb. 25.

?Tyronn is a young, energetic, athletic point guard,? says head coach Doc Rivers. ?He?s a proven winner with two championship rings, who has played with great players in Los Angeles (Lakers) and in Washington with Michael Jordan.?

Golden State Warriors guard Gilbert Arenas yesterday signed a six-year, $64 million offer sheet with the Washington Wizards, likely landing the team its point guard of the future and, for the first time in years, a young prospect from another team with all-star potential.

"We've got a nice, young nucleus, and Gilbert is a promising, talented player who will be a big piece of that foundation," President of Basketball Operations Ernie Grunfeld said. "It's a new beginning here. I think it shows that Washington could be a destination for young players, that it could be a desirable place to be."

Because Arenas is a restricted free agent, Golden State has 15 days to match Washington's offer, which starts at $8.5 million this season and makes Arenas the Wizards' highest-paid player. The Warriors are $10 million over the $43.8 million salary cap and likely will not be able to clear the roughly $18.5 million in player contracts to retain him. Golden State General Manager Garry St. Jean told reporters during a conference call that the Warriors may concede Arena's rights in a couple of days, saying the procedure was only a "formality." The Warriors agreed to terms with San Antonio's Speedy Claxton yesterday, meaning they likely will give up attempts to keep Arenas well before the 15 days are up.

Arenas, who averaged 18.3 points and 6.3 assists last season, is not expected in Washington until the Warriors say they will not match the offer.

In the 21-year-old Arenas, the Wizards see a player who could be a cornerstone for years -- no Washington player is under contract for more than four more years -- and the solution to their most needy position. Other than second-round draft pick Steve Blake, Washington doesn't have a true point guard.

"He's going to fit in very well," Grunfeld said. "We're going to play up-tempo, and Gilbert loves to push the ball up the floor. It's going to be helpful for Jerry Stackhouse, who's also great in transition, who's a slasher. Gilbert will fit in very well with what [Coach] Eddie Jordan is trying to do."

To get Arenas, the Wizards had to outduel the Los Angeles Clippers, who offered Arenas a contract that had similar terms but was contingent on clearing cap space. The procedures to clear space, such as signing free agent swingman Lamar Odom to an affordable contract and not matching offer sheets signed by guards Andre Miller (Denver) and Corey Magette (Utah), could take days and were not guaranteed to happen. That uncertainty, along with Washington's aggressive recruiting of Arenas -- the Wizards had two meetings with him last week, one in his home town of Los Angeles, the other in Washington -- were the deciding factors.

Honoring a promise he made to head coach Doc Rivers a day after Orlando was eliminated from the playoffs, Andrew DeClercq re-signed with the Magic on Tuesday.

DeClercq, a 6-foot-10, 255-pound center, agreed to a two-year deal worth approximately $5 million. His contract also is filled with incentives based on the level of his play.

"When Drew had his exit interview, he said that he was going to make sure he was back here," Rivers remembered. "When that happens, usually something gets done with a player."

The Magic's hopes of possibly signing point guard Tyronn Lue aren't as encouraging. Lue is having second thoughts about his verbal commitment to the Magic now that the Utah Jazz have entered the picture. Utah, in need of a point guard following the retirement of John Stockton, can offer Lue dramatically more money than the Magic can.

Barring a sign-and-trade deal, the Magic can only offer Lue a starting salary of $1.5 million next season. A potential sign-and-trade deal with Washington involving Darrell Armstrong fell through Monday when the Wizards got a commitment from point guard Gilbert Arenas.

From start to Monday night's finish, the kid who wore No. 0 proved to be maddeningly unpredictable.

Just as hopes were rising again among long-frustrated fans that he might turn down far more money elsewhere to grow with the Warriors, Gilbert Arenas signed with . . . Washington? A few weeks ago, the Wizards were as long a shot as Arenas was when the Warriors drafted him two years ago at the top of the second round.

Not Denver. Not Miami. Not San Antonio. Not the Los Angeles Clippers.

Out-of-nowhere Washington.

Didn't Arenas stress that he can't stand cold weather? Didn't he want to stay on or near the West Coast? Wouldn't a kid who grew up in the San Fernando Valley just north of Los Angeles be far more intrigued by the $60 million for six years he was offered by the Clippers?

Perhaps needing to sweeten free agent Tyronn Lue's deal to ward off last-minute suitors, the Orlando Magic have explored one intriguing scenario: Bringing back popular Darrell Armstrong_for at least a few minutes, anyway.

The Magic could re-sign Armstrong and then trade him to the Washington Wizards for Lue, the young point guard who has made Armstrong expendable in Orlando.

Lue's agent, Andy Miller, confirmed Monday that such a sign-and-trade deal to deliver Lue to the Magic has been discussed.

By the time the sun had set, however, that future remained murky with Arenas lost and Odom still in limbo.

Arenas, the Golden State Warrior point guard who was arguably the best player still available on the free-agent market, committed Monday evening to a six-year, $64-million offer from the Washington Wizards. The Clippers had gone as high as $60 million for Arenas, who played at Grant High in Van Nuys.

It may have been attractive for Arenas to return home, but the Clipper offer wasn't solid. It depended on the organization's first coming to an agreement with Odom, a restricted free agent who counts $10.6-million toward the salary cap. The Clippers needed to free up about $3 million from that amount and cut elsewhere to secure Arenas under the current cap limit of $43.8 million.

The Clippers offered Odom, a small forward, a three-year, $24-million deal. But as negotiations with Jeff Schwartz, Odom's agent, dragged on Monday, Arenas, through his agent, Dan Fegan, chose the nation's capital.