BASKETBALL

BROWN DENIES INTEREST IN KNICKS JOB Pistons coach Larry Brown intends to remain with Detroit through the end of his coaching career, the Detroit Free Press reported yesterday. Speculation that Brown was thinking about leaving the Pistons at the end of the season and taking over the fledgling Knicks began Friday, when he was quoted in a New York newspaper as saying that the Knicks’ job was one he had “dreamed about many times.”

But Brown said there was more to it than that. The Hall of Fame coach, who has three-plus years left on his $25 million, five-year contract, declined comment at Sunday’s practice, but told the Free Press that coaching the Knicks is not in his future.

“Even if they offer me the job at the end of this season, I am not going to go coach the Knicks,” Brown said.

FOOTBALL

OWENS PRACTICES FOR FIRST TIME SINCE INJURY Terrell Owens practiced yesterday for the first time since injuring his ankle last month, moving closer toward possibly returning for the Super Bowl.

The Eagles’ All-Pro receiver took part in less than one-third of the team’s 30 plays, getting a pass each time he ran a route. Last week, Dr. Mark Myerson, the surgeon who operated on Owens’s right ankle in December, said he would not clear him to suit up against New England on Sunday.

Myerson inserted two screws into Owens’s ankle and a plate on the outside of the ankle three days after he was injured against Dallas on December 19. Owens was told after surgery that he had only an outside chance of returning for the Super Bowl, which was 6 1/2 weeks away at the time.

GIBBS STATES COMMITMENT TO REDSKINS Joe Gibbs reiterated his commitment to the Washington Redskins yesterday, quashing speculation that began with a misinterpretation of remarks he made at a Nascar press day last week.

“I’d say that my commitment is a minimum of five years,” Gibbs told a news conference yesterday.

Last week, Gibbs said during a Nascar press tour in Charlotte that his “time in football will be short” compared to his commitment to his racing team. Some commentators took the remarks seriously, prompting Gibbs to call reporters to Redskins Park yesterday specifically to clarify his position.

CLARETT PULLS OUT OF SKILLS COMPETITION Maurice Clarett stiff-armed another commitment, reinforcing doubts about his reliability and fitness with the NFL scouting combine three weeks away.

The elusive, reclusive former Ohio State running back had been scheduled to participate in the college football all-star challenge, an eight-player skills event taped yesterday by Fox TV at Dolphins Stadium for broadcast Saturday.

But he recently hired a new agent, Steve Feldman, who told organizers late last week that Clarett was pulling out.

“It was completely my decision,” Feldman said. “He wanted to be there, but from a safety standpoint, it doesn’t seem logical to take a chance that he might tweak something or pull something or damage something that would prevent him from showing off his stuff at the combine.”

At the combine a year ago, Clarett showed up overweight and declined to work out. He’ll be eligible for the draft in April after his legal bid to enter the NFL last year was overturned by an appeals court. He hasn’t played since being suspended by Ohio State following the 2002 season.

BASEBALL

BONDS TO MISS MUCH OF SPRING TRAINING Barry Bonds is expected to miss much of spring training following arthroscopic surgery yesterday on his right knee, but the San Francisco Giants slugger should recover in plenty of time to resume his chase of Hank Aaron’s home run record in April. The seven-time NL MVP had a “minor arthritis cleanup,” the Giants said in a statement. Dr. Arthur Ting also repaired a small tear in Bonds’s meniscus.

Giants trainer Stan Conte expects Bonds to return for at least the final two weeks of spring training, and the 40-year-old should be back to full strength before opening day. Bonds’s knee showed signs of arthritis in 1999, but this surgery revealed less trouble than the Giants feared.

CONTE DENIES LEAKING TESTIMONY Victor Conte said yesterday he is not the source of leaks of grand jury testimony from Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and other prominent athletes who testified before the secret panel that indicted Conte and three others for allegedly distributing steroids.

Conte, who founded the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, is at the center of a sports steroid doping scandal. He is being investigated by a grand jury trying to find out who leaked testimony to the San Francisco Chronicle in violation of secrecy rules and a court order. Conte is subpoenaed to appear before the San Francisco panel today and turn over the contents of the hard drive in a computer from Burlingame based Balco. He may also be asked to testify.

METS SIGN STEWART TO MINOR LEAGUE DEAL Left-hander Scott Stewart agreed yesterday to a minor league contract with the Mets and will have a chance to earn a job in their thin bullpen. Stewart, 29, has an 11-6 record, 3.93 ERA, and 20 saves in four major league seasons with Montreal, Cleveland, and Los Angeles.

NELSON RETURNS TO MARINERS Former Yankees reliever Jeff Nelson signed a minor league contract with the Seattle Mariners yesterday, his third stint with the club.

The right-handed reliever previously pitched with Seattle from 1992-95 and again from 2001-03. Nelson, 38, is Seattle’s all-time record holder for most games pitched with 383. In his career, Nelson has pitched in 690 games with a 47-41 record.

GOLF

PALMER TO SKIP BAY HILL FOR FIRST TIME Arnold Palmer will skip the Bay Hill Invitational for the first time since he founded the tournament in 1979, most likely ending his 52-year streak of playing on the PGA Tour.

Palmer has played at least one PGA Tour event every year since 1953. He played in his 50th consecutive and final Masters last year and stopped playing the Bob Hope Classic three years ago. The 75-year-old got married last week in Hawaii, although he had decided before that to skip Bay Hill. He started the tournament at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge, which Palmer owns, in 1979. He never won the tournament, although he was 49 when it began.

– Associated Press