Cincinnati ? Ken Griffey Jr. isn’t hurt that the Cincinnati Reds discussed trading him.

“I’m here, and that’s the thing; I haven’t gone anywhere,” Griffey said Friday. “It’s baseball. Things change from time to time, and names get thrown into different situations, and it just happened to be my name this time.”

The Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres agreed to swap Griffey and infielder-outfielder Phil Nevin last weekend, but the deal never got off the ground because Nevin wouldn’t waive his no-trade clause.

Nevin said Thursday that he told Padres general manager Kevin Towers that he wants to stay in San Diego, where he arrived in 1999 through a spring training trade with Anaheim.

The Padres included a no-trade clause in the $34.5 million, four-year contract extension Nevin signed in November 2001. That extension kicks in with the 2003 season.

Griffey’s agent, Brian Goldberg, said Friday that Reds ownership might have quashed any deal made by general manager Jim Bowden.

Goldberg said he has had conversations “something above the baseball level” about Griffey’s future with the Reds. But he declined to say if that meant he had talked to majority owner Carl Lindner, or to confirm that Lindner’s approval is needed for a trade.

Goldberg said he was disappointed by the “lack of courtesy, lack of protocol,” shown by the Reds in starting trade talks without giving him or Griffey a heads up.

Bowden would say only that he has no trade talks in progress with the Padres. He declined to specifically discuss any effort to trade Griffey.

“I work on baseball trades every day,” Bowden said. “Some work out, some don’t. There’s nothing to talk about.”

Griffey said he had not talked to Bowden, but called the trade report “no big deal.”

“It’s over with. There’s nothing to say,” Griffey said. “Since it was me, it’s going to be blown out of proportion more than anybody else.”

Griffey is under contract with the Reds for six more seasons at $12 million per year. His contract with the Reds is tied to endorsement deals with companies owned by Lindner, the Reds’ chief executive officer.

“Veterans learn to take this in stride and not take it personally,” Goldberg said.

He called the trade talk “a dead issue.”