IN BRIEF : Lloyd, Wiggins Want to Play Again

Former Houston Rockets guards Lewis Lloyd and Mitchell Wiggins have decided to apply for reinstatement to the National Basketball Assn., according to former advisers for the players.

Lloyd and Wiggins were banned by the league for at least two years on Jan. 13, 1987, after testing positive for drugs. They become eligible to apply for reinstatement Friday.

“I’m helping Lewis fill out all the forms, and we hope to have them on file with the league by the 13th,” Tom Riley, an attorney from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, told the Houston Post. “Lewis Lloyd is a very decent person. He now accepts the fact that he has a problem, and he has taken all the necessary steps to deal with that.”

Chicago attorney Herb Rudoy, who used to be Wiggins’ agent, said Wiggins “definitely” will apply. “I just wrote a letter of recommendation to the commissioner,” Rudoy said. “Mitchell Wiggins has been clean for a long time.”

Under terms of the anti-drug agreement, the league will conduct an investigation of about 45 days after a player applies for reinstatement. The player will then meet with the league’s general counsel and later be interviewed by Commissioner David Stern.

With that timetable in mind, both Lloyd and Wiggins hope to be readmitted for the start of the 1989-90 season.