The Portland Trail Blazers problems off the court are well documented, and no one symbolized what was wrong with the franchise more than bad boy Rasheed Wallace. So the Trail Blazers finally did something about it.

　　Portland sent the volatile forward and reserve Wesley Person to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday for Shareef Abdur-Rahim and two other players.

　　"This trade helps the franchise in many ways," Trail Blazers president Steve Patterson said. "We get a younger core of players and can remain competitive in both the Western Conference and the league."

　　The same probably can't be said of Wallace. He drew the ire of NBA commissioner David Stern this season when he told The Oregonian newspaper that the league's white establishment is exploiting young black athletes to enrich itself. Wallace later issued an apology.

　　Last season, he was suspended by the league for seven games for threatening an official on the loading dock at the Rose Garden Arena after a game. It was the longest suspension ever handed down by the NBA that did not involve physical contact or substance abuse.

　　In the 2000-01 season, Wallace set the NBA record with 41 technical fouls. He is set to earn US$17 million in the final year of his contract, and already indicated that he did not want to re-sign with Portland.

　　"What you do in this situation is very clear, you start with a clean slate," Hawks general manager Billy Knight said. "You judge people on the way they are with you. I'm not going to go on what someone else said."

　　The announcement of the trade came about 90 minutes after the Hawks beat the Dallas Mavericks 102-96. Abdur-Rahim had 27 points and 10 rebounds in the victory, and is averaging 20.7 points and 8.4 rebounds this season.

　　But Knight still wasn't convinced the team was headed in the right direction.

　　"I didn't think we could continue to do that for the rest of the this year," Knight said. "What this does is accelerate the process of rebuilding. This was a deal that gets us financially healthy and makes us a player in the free-agent market."

　　Abdur-Rahim goes to the Trail Blazers along with center Theo Ratliff and little-used point guard Dan Dickau, a first-round pick of the Sacramento Kings in 2002, who was traded to the Hawks on draft day. Ratliff is averaging 8.3 points and 7.2 rebounds, and Dickau is averaging 2.1 points. Abdur-Rahim is owed US$28.1 million, and Ratliff gets US$21 million over the next two seasons.