NETS PRESIDENT RESIGNS, SOURCES SAY HE WAS NOT FORCED OUT

     Nets President Jon Spoelstra, whose marketing programs
helped the team set box-office records, resigned yesterday.  In
this morning's N.Y. TIMES, Mike Wise reports that Spoelstra
sometimes clashed "with an ownership resistant to change" and may
have upset some owners with his "candidness."  Two Nets officials
said Spoelstra was not forced out.  Spoelstra had pushed for the
Nets to change their name, to either Swamp Dragons or Fire
Dragons, but ownership nixed the change at the last minute.
Spoelstra, "frustrated" with "the malaise that he felt permeated
the franchise," also sent a memo to ownership criticizing player
personnel decisions.  Spoelstra, without a contract since March,
had expected to sign a more lucrative pact and was disappointed
when the Nets delayed (N.Y. TIMES, 9/1).