NBA NOTES

For much of the summer, Mitch Richmond’s future seemed to lie almost anywhere but Washington. That changed as he signed a four-year, $40-million contract with the Wizards.

“Hopefully my jersey is washed,� Richmond joked to assistant equipment manager Jerry Walter after he returned to the MCI Center.

“What can you say?� Richmond said. “I thought that I played a lot of years in this league. You never know when it’s going to come, but you want to keep playing and let things handle themselves.�

Last season, Richmond’s first with the Wizards, the 34-year-old guard led the team in scoring, averaging 19.7 points a game. But that scoring average was also the lowest of Richmond’s career. The team had a rocky season, finishing 18-32 and without a shot at the playoffs.

This season, Richmond predicts a turnaround, saying, “I felt we were a playoff-caliber team last year, but things didn’t go our way. This year definitely I think we’ll be a lot better team. I think we are a playoff team.�

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Point guard Terrell Brandon signed a six-year, $59-million deal to stay with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“There really wasn’t another team that I could say really interested me as much as Minnesota,� the two-time all-star said.

Brandon arrived from Milwaukee last March as part of the three-team trade that sent disgruntled point guard Stephon Marbury to New Jersey.

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Magic Johnson has agreed to play at least one game with M7 of the Swedish League. Steve Haney, an attorney for the former Laker star, said Johnson picked Sweden partly because of the impression the country made on him during a 1996 playing tour. . . . The Golden State Warriors re-signed center Erick Dampier to a multiyear contract, the team announced. Dampier, 25, averaged 11.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocked shots last seasons. . . . An arbitrator in England has ruled that Alek Radojevic, taken 12th overall in the NBA draft by Toronto, no longer has ties to a team in Yugoslavia and is free to join the Raptors. Radojevic is a 7-foot-3 center who played at Barton (Kan.) County Community College last season. He averaged 15.4 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocked shots in 38 games with the junior college team. . . . First-round draft pick Tim James signed with the Miami Heat. . . . San Antonio Spur forward Sean Elliott is scheduled to be released from a hospital today, a little more than a week after having a kidney transplant. . . . Steve Francis, displeased with being drafted in the first round by the Vancouver Grizzlies and at the center of trade rumors, has called a news conference for Friday in his hometown of Takoma Park, Md. Peter Land, who works for a public relations firm that represents the former Maryland point guard, said the news conference was basketball-related but wouldn’t give any more details.