Former Arizona basketball player Hassan Adams smiles after learning he's been acquitted of two DUI counts Wednesday at Tucson City Court.

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In the end, what it all boiled down to for Hassan Adams were a few nerve-racking days away from the New Jersey Nets' preseason camp.

A six-member jury at Tucson City Court on Wednesday acquitted Adams of the two DUI counts he faced from a March 5 arrest, citing doubts about his breathalyzer readings after five hours of deliberation.

"It was more a burden of proof," said Kirsten Larsen, the jury foreman.

"It came down to the state not providing enough evidence to refute the expert testimony regarding the breathalyzer test."

The three-day trial forced Adams to miss Wednesday night's Nets-76ers game, but by late Wednesday afternoon, he was holding a basketball and wearing practice gear at McKale Center while his former team worked out.

Wednesday's ruling meant Adams will not have to face the minimum of one day in jail if he had been convicted of DUI.

"This was a huge weight off his shoulders," said Stephen Paul Barnard, Adams' attorney. "It means he can go play some basketball."

Adams declined comment because "he's shy," Barnard said. But the attorney, who helped handle Diana Ross' DUI case in Tucson in 2004, noted that Adams was "almost trembling he was so happy about the outcome."

UA coach Lute Olson, who suspended Adams after the arrest for the March 8-11 Pac-10 tournament for what he initially called a "violation of team rules," also declined to answer questions when approached after the Wildcats' practice Wednesday.

Instead, he issued the following statement:

"Generally in cases like these, athletes are presumed to be guilty," Olson's statement said. "This country is all about being innocent until proven guilty. As I've said before, Hassan was suspended for the Pac-10 tournament last March for publicity that was detrimental to the program, not for guilt or innocence. That was decided today."

Adams' stature did not escape the trial. Barnard asked for a mistrial before Tuesday and Wednesday's proceedings because of media coverage, and was denied both times. But juror John Pyle said the jury blocked out the former UA standout's celebrity.

"I'm pretty sure most people (on the jury) heard of him but we definitely put that aside and treated him like he was anyone else," Pyle said. "When you come here, you know it's your duty to do that."

The three jurors who agreed to speak with the media afterward said they didn't need long to dismiss the first DUI charge, which was not tied to a blood-alcohol level. Larsen said the jury did not think testimony from Tucson police officer Kent Rhind, who said Adams weaved and responded slowly to being pulled over on March 5, was enough to prove he was driving while impaired.

The tougher decision, the three jurors said, was deciding whether Adams' 0.121 and 0.124 blood-alcohol readings were valid.

Defense witness Marc Stottman, a toxicology expert, described several mannerisms that can affect breathalyzer readings, including breathing, body temperature and the body's current absorption phase.

He estimated that absorption rates can trigger readings up to 20 to 50 percent higher.

"That is a huge number, and that alone stuck out in my mind more than anything else," juror John Ouzts said. "I failed to see, off the testimony, that that machine that was used for that particular test was 100 percent accurate, and that those results were an accurate representation of his blood-alcohol level at the time."

Jurors spent more than an hour Wednesday morning reviewing a digital recording of Stottman's highly technical testimony from Tuesday, then reached a verdict shortly thereafter.

"At the very end, (Stottman) said, 'I'm an expert in this field and knowing all these facts and looking at everything, I can't say for sure that the blood-alcohol level was below or above .08,' " Larsen said. "Without anything to refute that evidence, we felt we had to give credence to that expert testimony."

Tucson city prosecutor Mike Spriestersbach declined to comment afterward.