N.C. State Has $500,000 Hold on Valvano

If Jim Valvano wants to leave North Carolina State, he will lose $500,000.

The details of coaches’ contracts in the University of North Carolina system were released to the Associated Press Friday. The release came one week after a Superior Court judge ruled in a lawsuit by the AP that contracts for coaches at state institutions must be made public.

The AP filed a lawsuit to obtain the contracts to see if there are any buyout clauses or provisions on treatment of student-athletes. Salaries of coaches and athletic directors in the UNC system can be disclosed by the schools, but the schools said the contracts could not be made public.

According to Valvano’s agreement, which took effect Aug. 1, 1987, he would repay N.C. State $500,000 “if, and only if, he shall be hired to coach another NCAA Division I basketball program or National Basketball Assn. team.”

The contract says Valvano or the school or NBA team hiring him would be obligated “to pay the university liquidated damages in lieu of any and all other legal remedies or equitable relief in the amount of $100,000 per year for the five years that always shall be remaining under this contract.”

The school, in turn, would incur administrative, recruiting and resettlement costs in finding a successor “in addition to potentially increased compensation costs and loss of ticket revenues which damages are difficult to determine with certainty.”

The contract also stipulates when Valvano would be allowed to quit “at a time outside the basketball playing season, the basketball recruiting season as defined by the NCAA, with the exception of the 30 days immediately following the last regularly scheduled game of the basketball season, so as to minimize the impact upon the university basketball program.”

Valvano has been a prime NBA coaching candidate for several years, primarily with the New Jersey Nets, the New York Knicks and the Clippers.

Valvano interviewed for the Knick job in the spring of 1987, saying he listened to them “because of my background--as a New Yorker, as a longtime Knicks fan.”

Last March, Clipper owner Donald Sterling confirmed that Valvano had been contacted about becoming coach. Valvano’s agent, Art Kaminsky, said no talks were being conducted and that he believed the coach was happy at N.C. State.

In the postseason of 1988, Valvano was on the brink of leaving N.C. State for UCLA. On the Saturday of the Final Four semifinals in Kansas City, Valvano turned down the offer.