The NBA and Players’ Union Reach Agreement on a 6-Year Contract

The National Basketball Assn. and its players’ union, who have been without a contract all season, have agreed on a 6-year contract, Commissioner David Stern said Tuesday.

Some key provisions:

--The number of players available for the draft is sharply reduced.

--The right of first refusal for teams seeking to keep players who have played out their options is significantly modified.

--The salary cap will continue to be computed as it has been, but the union had filed an antitrust suit seeking its abolition.

Stern said agreement was reached in a 7-hour bargaining session Monday and was approved by the NBA Board of Governors and the executive board of the players’ association Tuesday.

The draft will be reduced from seven rounds to three this season and to two in ensuing years. That will, in effect, make 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 first 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. Among those players are Kurt Rambis of the Lakers, Moses Malone of the Washington Bullets and Sidney Moncrief of the Milwaukee Bucks and Tom Chambers of the Seattle SuperSonics.

The time period is reduced to four years beginning in 1988-89 and three years starting in 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.

Stern suggested that the average player salary will increase to $900,000 a year by 1992 under the new agreement.

“We are confident we can move the (salary) cap up 10% each year, and that the projected revenue will absorb this,” Stern said. Since 1983, NBA attendance has climbed 31.3%.

In an unrelated matter, the NBA approved the use of the third official for the 1988-89 season.