The NBA / Sam McManis : Albert King Contract Starts Flap Over Salary Cap

They probably didn’t do it to help anyone but themselves, but the New York Knicks may have provided other National Basketball Assn. teams with a how-to guide for staying within the league’s complicated and restrictive salary cap system yet still spend top dollars to sign free agents.

About a month ago, the Knicks tendered free agent Albert King a five-year, $3.2-million offer sheet though the club was close to exceeding its payroll limit under salary-cap restrictions.

The Knicks, no strangers to controversy, structured the contract so that King would receive most of his salary in the final three years of the contract, after the league’s collective bargaining agreement with its players union expires. The Knicks argued that since it isn’t certain there will be a salary cap after the 1986-87 season, why should the NBA force a limit on player salaries for those years?

The matter eventually went to arbitration, and Special Master Kingman Brewster ruled in the Knicks’ favor. The NBA, fretting that the salary cap would become ineffective, has appealed the ruling. The league claims the Knicks’ offer was a direct circumvention of the cap.

Federal Court Judge Robert L. Carter will hear the appeal Nov. 25 in New York.

If Carter agrees with Brewster, it will severely lessen the salary cap’s effectiveness. Give the blame or credit to the Knicks. Other NBA executives, who don’t have the vast financial resources like the Knicks receive from Gulf & Western, have been critical of their actions. “This isn’t a question of breaking rules, it’s of breaking the spirit and intent of the salary cap system that all the teams agreed to,” said Jerry Colangelo, general manager of the Phoenix Suns. “It amazes me how certain teams always look for loopholes and look for an edge. The entire league suffers under that situation.”

Said Denver President Vince Boryla: “The bottom line is that they are spending corporate dollars (from Gulf & Western). They don’t know what it means to sign their own names to a check the way other owners do. They spend money like water.”

Already, a team has tested the waters. Using the Knicks’ formula for dealing with the salary cap, the Seattle SuperSonics last week tendered a five-year, $2.7-million offer sheet to Clipper free agent Norm Nixon though they were close to the $4.2-million cap limit.

As with the Knicks’ offer to King, the SuperSonics kept Nixon’s cash salary low the first two seasons but augmented that with a hefty up-front loan and signing bonus. Then, in the first two years after the collective bargaining agreement expires, Nixon will receive $900,000 in cash.

Depending upon the federal court ruling later this month, this type of contract might become standard in the final two years of the collective bargaining agreement.

“I expect the King contract ruling will have a serious negative impact on this (salary cap) stability,” Colangelo said. “Next year could prove to be chaotic.”

Brewster is the former president of Yale University and a U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. He practices law in London, but flies to New York to arbitrate NBA grievances.

How did someone so far removed from the NBA land the job as its chief arbitrator?

“No one involved in basketball would want me to have a favorite team or player,” Brewster told the Associated Press. “I am totally ignorant of basketball, but I’m a lawyer and my job is to interpret contracts.”

The Phoenix Suns had the distinction of being the team that took the longest to win a game. The Suns lost their first nine games before beating Seattle, 119-99, last Friday.

Not coincidentally, Phoenix’s first victory came one day after Coach John MacLeod abandoned his new and definitely not improved running game in favor of the Suns’ standard offense.

“Someday, I would still like to go back to it,” MacLeod said. “(But) we just weren’t making any progress with the passing game. We gave it a try. You never know when we might try it again.”

MacLeod, rebuilding the Suns after his first losing season in eight years, figured a fast-break style would help them keep up with the Lakers, Denver and other running teams in the Western Conference. But all it enabled the Suns to do was lead the league in turnovers (28 a game) the first three weeks of the season.

Because of Phoenix’s poor start and the fact that MacLeod is in the final year of his contract, rumors that his job is in jeopardy have already arisen. But considering that MacLeod has been the Suns’ coach for 13 years, it seemingly would take more than just a bad start to oust him.

“There has been a commitment to John MacLeod,” Colangelo said.

Add Phoenix: One problem the Suns might face going back to a set offense is teaching center Georgi Glouchkov, their 6-9 Bulgarian import, the plays. Glouchkov speaks little English and his interpreter is scheduled to return to the homeland Jan. 1.

Atlanta Hawk forward Dominique Wilkins can attest to Glouchkov’s lack of English skills.

“That Bulgarian dude came over and I couldn’t understand a word,” Wilkins said. “He was talking a mile a minute and, besides, I don’t talk no German.”