The only stipulation is that the weapons can't be brought along on any official league business, such as games or training sessions or promotional activity.

"If you carry a gun, your chances of being shot by one increase dramatically, " said Stern. "We think this is an alarming subject, that although you'll read players saying how they feel safer with guns, in fact those guns actually make them less safe. I don't think it's necessary to walk the streets with a gun. I would favour being able to have a firearm to protect your home. Period."

In a country where a true sports shop is the kind of emporium that sells as many shotguns as it does sneakers, Stern's sudden interest in the subject was motivated by the involvement of a couple of NBA stars in serious shootings. Early last month, Indiana Pacers' Stephen Jackson was charged with criminal recklessness for firing shots in the air outside an Indianapolis strip club following a fracas in which he was hit by a car. Two of his teammates present that night were also found to be packing weapons for which they had legal permits.

"First of all, I don't own a gun, " said New Jersey Nets' Richard Jefferson about what he perceived as the national over-reaction to the Jackson shoot-up. "I wasn't allowed to play with toy guns.

When you're born in South Central LA, your parents don't exactly like you playing with guns. Shoot, our vice-president shot somebody in the face. A dude gets punched in the face and fires off shots and all of a sudden it's, 'What's an athlete doing with guns?' People go on hunting trips with semi-automatic weapons.

Is there a need to take an AK-47 to shoot deer? Which one is worse?"

No sooner had the Jackson brouhaha died down than the Boston Celtics' Sebastian Telfair was involved in an altercation outside a New York nightclub that culminated in the rapper Fabolous getting shot in the thigh. Telfair hasn't yet been charged but has had to deny media reports he ordered the hit on Fabolous for stealing a necklace of his.

The police are claiming Telfair left the club, perhaps inevitably owned by P Diddy, to make a phone call for back-up before the shooting started.

A Brooklyn native and one of the upand-coming stars in the league, Telfair has a colourful gun history. Last season, he was fined by his then club, the Portland Trail Blazers, for bringing a loaded gun on to the team's private jet. His excuse was that he'd grabbed his girlfriend's bag by mistake when rushing out the door to catch the flight. Authorities had uncovered the piece . . . for which the lady in question did indeed have the required paperwork . . . hidden in a pillowcase.

"Maybe if he [Stern] had to be in the neighborhoods that we had to be in to visit our relatives, " said Philadelphia 76ers Allan Iverson (left), in response to Stern's comments about keeping the guns at home, "or if he had the people that lived the way our people lived, then maybe he would rethink about making a comment like that."

A veteran of two gun-related arrests himself and Telfair's cousin, Iverson plays for a team that last February ran a gun exchange programme with the Philadelphia police department. Under that plan, anybody who handed an illegally-held and operable gun into a police station was given a voucher entitling them to two tickets for a forthcoming 76ers game. A previous version of this initiative had yielded more than 900 weapons for the 76ers and this time they wanted to melt every gun down to be recast as playground equipment.

"If we get one gun, it's a successful programme, " said Billy King, the president of the 76ers. "If we get one, if we get a thousand, whatever we get that's going to be good enough. Just like I've said in the past, we can never have a good year when it comes to homicide. One is too many. If this programme brings in one gun then it's a success. It's one gun that wouldn't have been brought in if it wasn't for this programme."

Laudable as the 76ers' scheme is, the intertwining of guns and the NBA is part of the league's ongoing image problem. In the post-Michael Jordan world, Americans are no longer watching basketball in the same numbers, especially on television. That too many of the current stars cultivate "gangsta" personas, and boast posses similar in size to their rapper peers is repeatedly cited as a factor alienating fans.

Obviously anxious to distance the game from the burgeoning "thug" mentality, Stern imposed a strict dress-code last year which led some to charge him with failing to understand the African-American athletes who dominate the sport.

As soon as he spoke out about the guns last month, there were murmurs about him infringing the constitutional rights of point guards and power forwards everywhere. Of course, run and gun used to be a cliche denoting an exciting fast-break type of basketball. Not anymore.