Abstract.Applying the theory of monotone operators to the metric projection Pfc of a Hilbert space H onto a nonempty closed subset K of H we prove a kind of connectedness property of the set {x e H; Pk{x) is not a singleton or Pic is not upper semi-continuous at x} which is a typical set for investigations in best approximation. A result of Balaganskii is extended.Let H be a real Hilbert space with inner product (•, •) and norm || • || and let K be a nonempty closed subset of H. The metric projection PK : H -► 2K is defined by PK(x):={keK;\\k-x\\=dK(x)}, where dK: H -» R is the distance function of K. If PK(x) is a singleton for each x G H, then K is called a Chebyshev set.To motivate the purpose of this note let us first restrict ourselves to Chebyshev sets though our general result is concerned with arbitrary closed subsets of H.The problem of convexity of a Chebyshev set was studied by many authors under various conditions on the continuity of the metric projection, among others by Klee [11, 12], Vlasov [17] and Asplund [1]. In these investigations, continuity was required at all points of H. In a paper of 1982, Balaganskii [2] considered the aspect of cardinality of the set of points of discontinuity of the metric projection. Typical for his results is the following theorem: If K is a Chebyshev set and if the set of points ofdiscontinuity of PK is countable, then K is convex. The method of proof in [2] is an inversion method developed by Ficken and later used by Klee [12] and Asplund [1].In the present note we shall prove a more general result concerning a "connectedness" property of the set of discontinuities of the metric projection fromReceived by the editors May 31, 1988 and, in revised form, June 21, 1988. 1980 Mathematics Subject Classification (1985. Primary 41A65, 41A50; Secondary 47H05.Key words and phrases. Best approximation in Hilbert spaces, convexity of Chebyshev sets, continuity of metric projections, uniqueness in best approximation, monotony of metric projections.