Perhaps no team in the league worked harder this summer than the Washington Wizards at washing away the residue of last season. And with that done, the team now looks to build toward long-term success.
   That will be the theme today when the Wizards open training camp. Players with three-years-or-less experience begin two-a-days here at the College of Charleston.
   "You have to think that you are good enough to make the playoffs," said new point guard Gilbert Arenas, who will be one of 14 players present when workouts begin at 10 a.m. "At the same time we've got a lot of young guys who are going to get better. We're going to have to keep improving."
   Former coach Doug Collins, fired over the summer and replaced by Eddie Jordan, spent his tenure preaching the importance of cultivating a young nucleus of players. And, at the same time, Collins wanted the Wizards to be a playoff contender, which they were until the last week of the season that ended 37-45.
   When the veterans ? players with four years experience or more ? join the younger players Thursday, the aged Michael Jordan and Charles Oakley will not be part of the mix. And neither will Bryon Russell, another 30-something player, who opted out of the final year of his contract.
   As a result, forward Christian Laettner and point guard Chris Whitney will be the only players in camp older than 30 with guaranteed contracts. Of the players expected to make the roster for the upcoming season, nine are 24 or younger.

The biggest question, of course, is how many games the Washington Wizards will win this season. But as players begin reporting to training camp at the College of Charleston (S.C.), more pressing questions must be answered first.

Is Kwame Brown ready to begin the process of becoming a franchise player, or is he destined to be a flop? Is point guard Gilbert Arenas as good as advertised and on the cusp of superstardom? Is Jerry Stackhouse, an All-Star in Detroit, ready to rejoin the game's elite players?

Newcomer Eddie Jordan, the team's seventh coach since 1999, has the daunting task of resolving these questions and others. Considered one of the better teaching coaches while an assistant in New Jersey the last four seasons, Jordan takes over a team with nine players 24 and younger ? all of whom could be on the roster when the Wizards open the season in Chicago Oct. 29.

Jordan, who coached a horrible Sacramento team to a 33-64 record in the final 15 games of the 1996-97 season and all of 1997-98, is aware of the Wizards' many gray areas.

"What's our growth rate?" Jordan said, sounding unsure himself. "Is it going to be really fast? Is it going to be difficult or is it going to be a normal process? We'll have to see."

The Wizards' last two seasons differed from the typical only in that Michael Jordan transformed the team into a cash cow that led the NBA in attendance. The on-court results were in line with the franchise's recent history of failure. Washington was 37-45 both seasons, failed to reach the playoffs last spring for the 14th time in 15 years and extended to 21 the number of seasons since it last won a playoff series.

"It's a process, and it always was a process," said president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld, who replaced Michael Jordan in the front office. "You have to take one step at a time. You can't go from not reaching the playoffs for seven or eight years and not winning a playoff series for 21 years to winning a championship. There are steps to be taken. That's going to take a lot of dedication and a lot of hard work, and we're committed to getting there."

The Orlando Magic likely will wait until after training camp begins to sign a veteran point guard, but they are looking to immediately add another big man with Florida ties.

The Magic are trying to sign former Florida Gator Donnell Harvey, a rugged 6-foot-8, 220-pound power forward. They have competition from the Denver Nuggets and the Washington Wizards for his services.

Magic General Manager John Gabriel said there's more work to do to land Harvey -- a favorite of Coach Doc Rivers.

"But I would think we got a chance," Gabriel said.

Harvey would give the Magic something they lack off the bench: a physical defensive presence, Gabriel said.

Harvey, a three-year pro, averaged 7.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last season in Denver.

Gabriel said signing Harvey would not preclude the Magic from adding a point guard. The club is looking for a veteran to relieve Tyronn Lue and mentor rookie Reece Gaines.

John Crotty and Shammond Williams -- veterans who both played with the Nuggets last season -- are among several guards who have been invited to camp.

Washington Wizards majority owner Abe Pollin, in an online chat on the team's Web site, answered a question as to why he did not rehire Michael Jordan as the team's president of basketball operations.

"My decision not to bring Michael Jordan back as President of Basketball Operations was extremely difficult," Pollin said. "But the bottom line for me was to do what I felt was best for this franchise. It is important to remember that I was determining whether to rehire Michael Jordan as President of Basketball Operations, not whether to re-sign Michael Jordan the player. At this stage in our team's development, I felt it was best to move in a different direction."

In early May, Pollin notified Jordan that he no longer wanted Jordan around in an 18-minute meeting described as acrimonious.

Some within the Wizards organization painted Jordan as an executive who fostered bad relationships and an environment of mistrust and a player who was feared by his teammates.

"Regarding the manner in which Michael was let go, I can only say that I respect Michael Jordan, I made a decision about the future of the franchise and I stated my decision to Michael," Pollin said in the online chat. "Any other characterization of what happened in this meeting is only hearsay and not worthy of discussion. This will be the last statement I make about this issue."

Jordan, in a statement after he was released, said the manner in which his dismissal was handled was "callous."

Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin admitted yesterday that this has been a "tough summer" for him, never mentioning his acrimonious parting with Michael Jordan. The public relations backlash was so harsh it prompted Pollin to send letters to season ticket holders offering a refund of their deposits if they were unhappy with the direction of the team after an offseason of substantial turnover.

"It was a tough summer for me. It was difficult," Pollin said at a news conference yesterday to introduce newly signed guard Gilbert Arenas.

With Jordan and nearly everyone he brought into the organization gone, Pollin championed his luring of Eddie Jordan as coach, Ernie Grunfeld as president of basketball operations and the acquisition of Arenas, who became a free agent in July.

"I ended up getting exactly what we wanted," Pollin said.

Many league officials feel the tandem of Eddie Jordan and Grunfeld is an ideal fit in rebuilding a franchise that has not been to the postseason since 1997, when it was swept in three games by Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.

An unexpected $2 million bump in salary cap space gave the Wizards enough money to attract Arenas (six years, $64 million), the NBA's most improved player last season after averaging 18.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists, and helping the Golden State Warriors make a 17-game improvement from the 2001-02 season.

With draft picks Jarvis Hayes of Georgia and Steve Blake of Maryland expected to have some impact this season, Pollin said, "I don't think anybody will ask for a refund."

A resilient Spanish team, led by NBA star Pau Gasol and 2002 Washington Wizards draft choice Juan Carlos Navarro, put defending champion Serbia and Montenegro on the brink of elimination in the European basketball championships today with a 75-67 defeat.

Only a year ago, Serbia and Montenegro -- then known as Yugoslavia -- was the newly crowned world champion after a stirring run in Indianapolis. The winner of three of the last four Euro championships, it has lost two of three games in this tournament and must defeat a solid Turkish team Monday night in an elimination game or head back to Belgrade an embarrassed bunch as the eight quarterfinalists vie for a spot in the Sept. 14 championship game.

Gasol, of the Memphis Grizzlies, finished with 20 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Navarro, a star with European club champion Barcelona, scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half.

Gilbert Arenas sat in his agent's Southern California beach house one mid-July day, hair uncombed, face unshaven. After days of enjoying a red-carpet courtship by the Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors, the free agent guard was racked by sleeplessness and nervousness.

He did not know which of the long-suffering teams' millions he wanted to take. As the waves poured in from the Pacific and the controller of the video game he had worn out sat idle, he finally figured out how he would make up his mind: He would flip a coin.

He had eliminated Golden State, where he had played his only two seasons in the league and earned the NBA most improved player award last season. Not enough money and some bitter feelings that arose during negotiations eliminated the Warriors, he said.

The Clippers were heads, the Wizards were tails. Ten flips of a quarter would decide.

Heads came up eight times.

Washington it was.

"I always go against the odds," Arenas said of his unconventional process. "When the Clippers came up eight times, I was like, I don't go with the grain. I go against the wave. I go upstream."

That is Gilbert Arenas.

The Washington Wizards will hire Tommy Sheppard, the longtime director of team services and player relations with the Denver Nuggets, to help oversee the team's basketball operations department, league sources said yesterday. Sheppard is expected to be announced as the newest member of President of Basketball Operations Ernie Grunfeld's staff next week, sources said.

Though Sheppard mainly was responsible for dealing with media relations with the Nuggets, he also was involved in scouting and other basketball-related jobs. He will not have any media responsibilities with the Wizards. He joins Milt Newton, hired as director of player personnel, as Grunfeld's top assistants. The new operations staff replaces the previous staff, which was headed by longtime general manager Wes Unseld, who is on a leave of absence, and a group hired by former president of basketball operations Michael Jordan.