ABSTRACT:

With the Nets this season, it’s always something to distract and detract. Yesterday’s crisis du jour was a magazine article claiming players have been grumbling about Sam Cassell’s unwillingness to play through an ankle injury.

“Bull,” Cassell said before the Nets met the Hornets at the Meadowlands last night. “Whoever said it is not man enough to put his name to it, so it doesn’t bother me. I know how the ankle feels.”

Cassell injured the ankle opening night. He sat out six games, returned and aggravated the injury. He made a cameo appearance in the following game, a start in the game after that. But since that start, against the Knicks at the Garden on Feb. 23, Cassell has been sitting out.