That's just how it is with players. They get shipped to L.A. or Orlando or Phoenix, and they call it an opportunity. They wind up in Milwaukee - and sure, New Jersey in some cases - and they call it rejection.

Milwaukee? Great town, really. But it was also 15 degrees with a chance of a half-foot of snow yesterday. Milwaukee? Please. Rod Thorn couldn't have done better than that, after all Richard Jefferson did for the Nets? Did The Boss sit down and think, "Let's see, what's the most depressing place we can send RJ?"

And after he was reminded the league didn't have a franchise in Beirut or Zimbabwe, he chose Milwaukee?

No regrets.

Especially since the Nets are light years ahead of where they were a year ago - despite the identical record - in potential, ambition, and outlook.

"I think everybody saw the writing on the wall for the organization," a realistic Jefferson told reporters after Bucks practice yesterday, as he prepared for the Nets' visit to the Bradley Center tonight. "You know, with 2010 (free-agent goals) and my contract (running) through 2011. They really had to cut cap space, and with the team not going where they wanted to ...

"I think they're pleasantly surprised with where they are right now. They weren't one of the teams that was picked high, and I'm happy for them. There was no ill will."

You heard him: No ill will. That's because he's usually adept at keeping the friends he has, notably Vince Carter and Devin Harris.

"I wouldn't wish ill will on Vince or Devin or anybody there," he said. "I had too many good years with them to say all of a sudden that I want them to lose every single game. No. I want them to play well and have a good season.

"All of those guys, I had nothing but positive experiences with them."

The positive experiences included two trips to the NBA Finals, which wouldn't have happened without him. The Nets knew it, which is essentially why they gave Jefferson a $76 million deal shortly after letting Kenyon Martin split for Denver.

They appreciated his competitiveness and his talent. They valued his willingness to act as the voice of the team's inner spirit when Jason Kidd would not. They marveled at his astonishing capacity to deliver, even when he was in pain.

Sure, there were times he was an insufferable pain himself, the kind of player who could grumble and grouse over a coach's direction every step of the way - the kind of guy whom you could never be quite sure whether he truly bought in.

But once the ball went up, he was as committed as anyone who ever wore the uniform, even when he knew Jason Kidd was bailing out.

That's because he appreciated the accomplishments of his seven seasons more than anyone who passed through East Rutherford, and he even borrowed Thorn's month-old line about Kidd yesterday: "I was part of a group that made an organization relevant," he said.

That kind of connection is hard to break, which is why Jefferson still talks (electronically, anyway) with the few who are still around.

"For those of us who played with him, he still means a lot to us," Josh Boone said. "You miss him being around. Especially me - RJ was here when I broke in, so he's one of my better friends."

Boone laughed. "And I'm sure he's going to try to shoot 35 times to make a point - as many as he can get," he said. "But you know what, they'll probably be good shots."

He'll play hard, anyway. That's because Jefferson knows that one of these months, the final playoff seed could come down to one game played between his old team and his new one. So it's a game his new team (17-20) needs pretty badly, and it will be treated as such - nostalgia is secondary, until he returns to the Meadowlands in 21 days.

"That's just the way you approach it," Jefferson said. "When you really look at it - and there's nobody there that I went to the Finals with - there's only I think one person there left that I won a division championship with, and that's Vince. I played half a season with Devin.

"It would be different if maybe going in there the first time, but you get a little bit out of the way playing here the first time."