NEW YORK -- It will be four-on-one when the season starts. Four future Hall of Famers in Los Angeles, trying to resurrect the dethroned champions, against one two-time MVP in San Antonio and the complementary pieces that snap in around him.

"I'm not worried about the Lakers," Tim Duncan says. "Honestly."

OK. What about Jason? It has to be haunting, or at least teasing, to spend the summer with Jason Kidd so soon after finding out that Kidd won't be spending the next six seasons as a Spur. It can't be fun choking back those inevitable thoughts of What If after catching every J-Kidd pass on the practice floor. Right?

	Rules prevent Tim Duncan from switching to the Virgin Islands' senior national team.

"I don't think about it any more," Duncan insists. "I've got some great teammates back where I am. It didn't work out with Jason. I have to move on."

It's not easy to get Duncan, the unflappable giant, to admit that something worries or bothers him. Turns out, there is only one basketball scenario we know of that does it.

Stay tuned, though. It's coming soon. Duncan will be losing his island cool Aug. 23 in Puerto Rico, when Team USA has to play the U.S. Virgin Islands in an Olympic qualifying game.

"That's the game I dread," Duncan said. "That's the game I dread."

He said it twice because the idea bugs him that much. Duncan said Monday, somewhat seriously, that he will tell Team USA coaches Larry Brown and Gregg Popovich that he's injured and can't play that day. He never expected that he would have to play against his home country, because the Virgin Islands didn't field a senior men's national team back in 1994 when he represented the United States for the first time.

"I hoped that it would never happen," he said.

Duncan was 18 in 1994 when he played for the United States at the Goodwill Games. He was ineligible to play for any other country by 1996, when he helped the Americans win a qualifying tournament for the 22-and-under World Championships. That was Duncan's first FIBA-sanctioned competition, and the rules of basketball's international governing body state that a player can't represent more than one nation once he plays at a senior level.

Hakeem Olajuwon was able to play as a Yank in the 1996 Olympics, after gaining U.S. citizenship, because he never played for Nigeria above junior level. Duncan couldn't switch jerseys now if he wanted to. And part of him does, now that the Virgin Islands does have a men's team.

"That'd be a great honor," Duncan said, "to get a Virgin Islands team into the Olympics."

Duncan, mind you, wants a gold medal, and he doesn't deny that he chose to play for the United States -- instead of waiting for the Virgin Islands to assemble a representative squad -- because it gave him "a better opportunity to win the gold." Duncan missed out on that opportunity in the fall of 2000, when knee surgery forced him to withdraw from the team that won the Sydney Olympics.

Now that the Virgin Islands does have a squad, the problem is that Duncan -- who has never given anyone much material to knock him for -- will inevitably be labeled a turncoat by some segments of the local populace.

The solace? According to Dallas Mavericks guard Raja Bell, the only current NBA player on Team Virgin Islands, none of Duncan's would-be teammates feel that way.

"There are no hard feelings that I know of -- we're all really supportive of him," Bell said. "I think if any of us had the same opportunity, to go play for the U.S. and win a gold medal, I'm sure most of us would do the same. He gets some unfair criticism about it, because I can't say I wouldn't have made the same decision."

Not that Bell doesn't have to choke back some What If thoughts himself. The Virgin Islands, roughly twice the size of Washington D.C., has a tiny population of 125,000, but its basketball team is becoming fairly legit. It qualified for the Olympic qualifying tournament by finishing fourth in a regional pre-qualifying event, with three losses -- to Mexico twice and Puerto Rico -- by a total of four points. And Bell was suspended for the bronze-medal loss to Mexico, which played without Bell's Dallas teammate, Eduardo Najera.

	“	I don't want to play against them. I refuse to play against them. ”
		— Tim Duncan on playing the Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands would hardly be considered medal contenders if it had Duncan, but you'd bet on TD to drag this supporting cast all the way to the Olympics, which for some countries is just as good as winning a gold medal. The top three teams in the forthcoming qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico will earn spots in the 2004 field in Athens, and you'd have to list a Duncan-led Virgin Islands as the leading contender for that third spot alongside Team USA and Argentina.

"With Tim, we could be monsters," said Bell, who might have to miss the qualifying tournament himself because he doesn't yet have an NBA contract for next season and can't take the risk of getting injured. "The team was kind of resurrected during my sophomore or junior year of college (at Florida International). We have everything but a guy we can go to in the fourth quarter for buckets. With Tim, we would be in the Olympics."

Instead, Duncan has about 10 days to figure out how to get out of a game that spooks him far more than the prospect of dealing with Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton and Karl Malone all at once. Duncan admitted that he hadn't even looked at Team USA's bracket yet, hoping to delay his worst fears as long as possible.

But there it is. In one group: USA, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Venezuela ... Virgin Islands.

"I don't want to play against them," Duncan said. "I refuse to play against them."

Asked if he's prepared for any negative reaction back home, Duncan said: "I know just about all of the guys on the team. They'll give me grief, and that's all the grief that really matters."

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, send Stein a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.