Aug. 1, 1999
SportsLine wire reports

Just one minute after the NBA's one-month moratorium on trades and free agent signings elapsed, Karl Malone signed a four-year extension with the Utah Jazz.

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Antonio Davis was officially traded and Keith Van Horn, Jamie Feick, Eric Snow and George Lynch re-signed with their old teams.

Otherwise, though, Sunday was relatively quiet as July's moratorium on dealmaking gave way to an August that will eventually feature a flurry of deals.

"I thought things would be busier today, but I guess I was wrong," Toronto general manager Glen Grunwald said.

Like many GMs, Grunwald was waiting to see what Orlando would do with Penny Hardaway. Many people around the league felt a resolution of the Hardaway situation would open the floodgates to further free agent signings and trades.

Hardaway spent the weekend in Phoenix meeting with Suns officials, who would like to acquire him in a sign-and-trade deal. The Lakers, Raptors and Trail Blazers were believed to be the other teams with the best chances of acquiring the three-time All-Star.

"Penny continues to visit teams and we continue to field phone calls," Magic general manager John Gabriel said. "Penny has to make a decision, and one team has to step up. I doubt it will be resolved within 48 hours."

MALONE SIGNED HIS NEW four-year, $66.5 million contract just one minute after the moratorium expired. He appeared with teary-eyed Jazz owner Larry Miller at a news conference Sunday to announce the deal.

"It means in a sense that what your mom told you was right," said Malone, who turned 36 on July 24. "If you work hard and dedicate yourself to something, you'll be rewarded.

"I have one goal now, and that one goal is to win the NBA championship," Malone said. "It started 14 years ago. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I'm going back to training right now."

Utah still must re-sign free agents John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek and Shandon Anderson. Stockton and Hornacek are virtual certainties to return to the Jazz, while Anderson is listening to offers from Seattle, San Antonio and Sacramento.

The Jazz also were interested in forward Jamie Feick, who opted instead to return to the New Jersey Nets. Terms of Feick's deal were not immediately known, although Van Horn signed an extension worth roughly $73 million over six years.

"It was an automatic, quite frankly," Nets general manager John Nash said. "We said from the beginning, there was no mystery about the fact that Keith is one of our more important players, and so from the first opportunity we had to talk to him and his representatives, we wanted to do everything in our power to maintain his services."

DAVIS WAS TRADED FROM INDIANA to Toronto in a deal that was agreed to over a month ago. The Pacers get 18-year-old Jonathan Bender, the fifth overall pick in the NBA draft.

The 6-foot-9, 230-pound Davis averaged 8.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 25.5 minutes per game coming off the bench for Indiana last season. Davis could be particularly valuable to the Raptors if they are unable to re-sign power forward Charles Oakley, who is a free agent.

"There's really nothing to report other than the fact we're still talking to Toronto," said Charles Grantham, one of Oakley's representatives. "Once the gates open, depending on some of the interested teams, a sign-and-trade deal could take place."

The 76ers didn't want to risk losing Lynch, their starting small forward, or Snow, who took over the point guard duties from Allen Iverson in the lockout-shortened 1999 season and was voted the league's most improved player.

"Our priority has been to keep our family intact," 76ers general manager Billy King said. "Keeping Eric and George is a big part of that.

"I'm just glad now it is official and I'm happy we were able to keep George and Eric part of our group. We're happy with what we've done, but our job's not finished."

In other free agent news: