The hot rumor that professional lacrosse superstar Paul Gait would leave Syracuse to play with twin brother Gary in Baltimore next season is false.

Baltimore's National Lacrosse League franchise has moved to Pittsburgh.

How about Gait to Pittsburgh, then?

"Right now Paul is playing for us," Smash owner Howard Dolgon said Tuesday. "In fact, I just put him on our protected list."

The owner conceded, however, that Gait, 31, wouldn't mind rejoining his brother as their brilliant careers wind down. Gary Gait is the pro game's career scoring leader (536 points in nine Major Indoor Lacrosse League/NLL seasons), and Paul Gait is second (475 points). The last time they played the pro game together was 1994 in Philadelphia, and they led the Wings to the league championship.

The former four-time Syracuse University All-Americans are in British Columbia playing in a field league in their hometown for the final time and did not return phone messages.

"Paul would like to play with Gary again," Dolgon said. "There's no question about that. But I'm not going to give him away. Baltimore offered me six figures for Paul during the stretch run last season, and he came to me and said he wouldn't mind going. Even though we're struggling financially, I wasn't going to let him go for cash. What would that tell our fans about our commitment to winning?"

The Smash hasn't done much winning even with Paul Gait in the lineup. Shortly after Dolgon joined the NLL in 1997 with a Syracuse franchise, he gave Rochester three first-round draft picks in 1997 for Gait, who had led the Knighthawks to the league crown the previous season. One of those picks turned out to be SU's Casey Powell, who appears to be the league's next superstar.

While Rochester has reached the playoffs in each of the two years since the deal, Syracuse is 5-19 and has finished in the seven-team league's basement both years and has struggled to put fans in the seats. The experience was new for Gait, who played for the league title in five of his seven years as a pro before coming to Syracuse and said he had never been on a losing team of any kind in his entire life.

Despite the team's struggles and a first season that was plagued by injuries that resulted in off-season surgery to both elbows, Gait rebounded last season with 37 goals and a career-high 37 assists and was third in the league in scoring.

Gary Gait, meanwhile, has led the league in scoring the last two seasons. Yet, even his presence and the league's best regular-season record (16-8) since the NLL replaced the MILL before the 1998 season could keep the Thunder in Baltimore. The team couldn't attract enough of a fan base to offset the cost of operating in a major-league city and packed for Pittsburgh this week.

"It's difficult to understand," Dolgon said, "how the three biggest lacrosse hotbeds in the country - Baltimore, Syracuse and Long Island - are the ones that are struggling the most to build a fan base in the NLL."

Putting the Gait brothers together in Pittsburgh would certainly help sell the game in that city, but Dolgon insisted he wasn't about to let Paul Gait leave for nothing. He also denied that he was trying to put together a three-team deal in which Gait would go to Pittsburgh for players who would then be dealt to Rochester for Powell, a player Dolgon covets.

"Teams have talked to me and I've listened," Dolgon said. "And I know Paul would love to end his career with Gary. But if I'm going to lose a Paul Gait, I'm going to have to get something equal in return."

In other Smash news, Dolgon said he wouldn't make a decision on the team's uncertain coaching situation until early next month. Last season, Freeman Bucktooth, Pat Donahue and Steve Scaramuzzino were co-coaches, a setup that resulted in disagreements on who should be in the lineup and confusion behind the bench. Look for one bench coach to assume control this season.