Green, Unsigned by Lakers, Goes Home

A.C. Green, the Lakers’ top draft pick, is dissatisfied with contract negotiations and has packed up, quit the summer league and gone home to Portland, Ore.

“We came down there in good faith and participated without a contract,” said Green’s agent, Portland attorney Leon Jordan. “But things didn’t progress as we thought. He didn’t want to come back. We are now going to get our heads together to see how to get him where he wants to go. He has come home to explore his options.”

Those options would appear to be limited. Because the Lakers are over the salary cap, the best they can do for Green is a one-year contract for $75,000, they say. Jordan has asked for a three- to five-year guaranteed deal, maintaining that there are ways to work around the cap. He also claims to have an offer he won’t discuss from a European team interested in his client.

“He realizes we have a problem,” Laker General Manager Jerry West said. “A.C. Green was our second leading assist man and leading rebounder in the summer league, this despite the fact he was having stomach problems. We think he’s a nice player.

“It (his abrupt departure) was something his agent wanted him to do. Once we get the summer league out of the way, we’ll be looking for some way to satisfy him. It’s a terrible problem. We would like to reach an agreement, but we have to play within the rules.”

Green, a 6-9, 218-pound forward from Oregon State, played in four summer league games for the Lakers. He averaged 9 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists in just under 28 minutes a game.