old friend Forte...

[Mark Piotrowski <markp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tacoma News-Tribune: The Seattle SuperSonics have decided not to invite 
Joseph Forte to their training camp, despite his $1.1 million 
guaranteed salary that they are required to pay.

The Sonics have not yet officially waived Forte, but only because they 
are waiting to see if they can either trade him, or if he is needed in 
a multi-player trade to meet salary-cap requirements. Seattle still is 
trying to deal one of its post players, and would like to package Forte 
in any deal.

Barring those scenarios, Forte will be waived when players with less 
than three years of service report to the team's training camp in a 
month.

Although he has only two years of NBA experience, Forte was not invited 
to participate on the team's summer league team, which competed in Los 
Angeles and on which youngsters Vladimir Radmanovic, Ronald Murray, 
Ansu Sesay and rookie Nick Collison played.

Forte also has been excluded from the team's travel plans to Tokyo, 
where it opens the season against the Los Angeles Clippers on Oct. 31. 
The team has been making plans for several months.