New pact for players

April 26, 1988

NEW YORK -- The NBA and its players' union, who have been without a contract all season, have agreed on a new six-year contract, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced today.

The agreement sharply reduces the number of player available for the draft and significantly modifies the right of first refusal for teams seeking to keep player who have played out their option. The salary cap will continue to be computed as it has been. The union had filed an antitrust suit seeking the abolition of those practices.

Stern said agreement was reached in a seven-hour bargaining session yesterday and approved by the NBA Board of Governors today. He said that it also had been approved by the executive board of the NBA Players Association.

"As you would expect," Stern said in a statement, "both sides made compromises from their original positions in order to reach agreement."

Under the new contract, the NBA Draft will be reduced from seven rounds to three for this season and two in ensuing years. That would have the effect of making all but the top 50 or so players coming out of college free agents.

It also stipulates that the right of first refusal applies only to the end of a player's contract or at the end of a specifically negotiated extension, not to exceed eight years. Beyond that, it will not apply beyond the first contract to players who as of this season have put in six NBA seasons.

The time period is reduced to four years beginning in 1988-89 and three years starting in the 1993-94, the final years of the agreement.

That means that players who have been in the league seven years after this season or five after next season are not subject to right of first refusal.

In return, the players agreed to drop their lawsuit.

Source: Associated Press,