NEW YORK -- Latrell Sprewell met Tuesday with players' union director Billy Hunter to discuss appealing the $250,000 fine levied against him by the New York Knicks.

The union received official notification of the fine, which is believed to be the largest ever levied by an NBA team against a player. Sprewell and Hunter met for about an hour in preliminary talks on the appeal, which is expected to be filed later this week.

Aside from the fine for failing to notify the team of a hand injury, the Knicks have ordered Sprewell to stay away from the team indefinitely. He will be sidelined by the injury until mid-November.

"I don't know where his head is until he comes,'' coach Don Chaney said. "Hopefully his head will be in the game, but I can't cross that bridge until it happens. I'm not anticipating anything until it happens.''

Despite the acrimony between Sprewell and the Knicks, both sides have been saying they can live with each other. Sprewell said he wants to remain with New York, and Knicks president Scott Layden has insisted that Sprewell will return as a key component of the team.

Because Sprewell was not officially suspended, he will continue to be paid his full salary of $12.6 million. The union will appeal the fine on various grounds and will argue that Sprewell did not know his hand was broken after he injured it.

Layden did not want to address the issue of Sprewell's appeal.

"I'm not going to turn this into a daily event of commenting. We'll just leave it there,'' Layden said prior to New York's exhibition opener against the Boston Celtics in Uniondale, N.Y. "We know Latrell is a great competitor. We know he wants to be here. We know he's going to be a part of our team, and we want him back. I'm not going to say anything more than that.''

Knicks guard Allan Houston sat out the game against Boston because of a sore ankle.