Yugolavs Want Defections to NBA Stopped

Yugoslavia’s basketball officials appealed to clubs to stop allowing their top players to sign contracts in the United States.

In a statement carried by the state Tanjug news agency today, the Basketball Union of Yugoslavia called on the local clubs to be more selective when allowing their players to join the NBA, “or our basketball is faced with irreparable loss.”

The statement by the basketball authorities said the National Basketball Assn. must respect contracts between players and their Yugoslav clubs so the “further progress of the Yugoslav basketball is ensured.”

“It would be a catastrophe for our basketball if the Yugoslav federation does not urgently adopt a ruling that would prevent players younger than 26 from signing with the NBA teams,” Bozidar Maljkovic, who coaches the leading Yugoplastika club, said recently.

Yugoslav players, who recently won the European basketball championships and lost to the Soviet Union in last year’s Olympic finals, have been a constant target for recruitment by several NBA teams in recent years.

There is no current ruling by the Yugoslav sports authorities that would prevent them from turning pro in the United States, although most of them have signed contracts with Yugoslav teams.

Vlade Divac, 21, a center on Yugoslavia’s national selection squad who was drafted this season by the Lakers, said he is going to sign with the NBA team this summer because his Yugoslav club, Partizan, has given him permission to go.