Jazz Offer Rejected by Erving

Julius Erving will pass up the multi-million dollar offer sheet of the Utah Jazz to remain with the Philadelphia 76ers, Jazz President David Checketts said Monday.

However, a 76er spokesman said the star forward was still trying to make a decision where he will play the next National Basketball Assn. season.

Erving, 36, met for five hours Monday with 76er owner Harold Katz. He left the Katz mansion in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., saying only “sorry” as he drove past reporters at the gate.

Checketts said he learned through Erving’s agent, Irwin Weiner, that the veteran player decided to remain in Philadelphia.

He said Jazz general partner Larry Miller, who had flown to Philadelphia for last-minute talks with Erving, had left a message for him that Erving had decided to stay with the 76ers.

“I found out through Weiner’s secretary that . . . Larry had left a message for me that Julius Erving had decided to stay in Philadelphia,” Checketts said.

Harvey Pollack, 76er spokesman, said he had no word of a decision from Erving. Pollack said he believed Erving left Katz to go home to think about what he would do.

The Jazz had offered Erving a two-year contract worth a reported $3.8 million. The 76ers reportedly offered Erving a one-year deal worth almost $1.5 million during contract talks last month, the same deal he received with the team last year.

Both Miller and Checketts said Erving’s family made the difference in the negotiations.

“He has a great attachment to his family and a great attachment to the Philadelphia area,” Miller told WPVI-TV Sunday after his meeting with Erving. “But somewhere along the line he feels as if he were mistreated by someone here. And so I guess he was more receptive to our offer than he otherwise might have been.”

“I think (family) had to be what swayed the decision,” Checketts said. “But I think it’s pretty clear . . . that you have to say the fact that he didn’t grab our offer sheet and sign it, in my mind, says he was afraid Philly would not match it.”

Erving has played all 10 of his NBA seasons with the 76ers after a star-studded career with the Nets of the American Basketball Assn. He has scored 29,021 points and is basketball’s third all-time scoring leader, trailing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain.