Valvano Ready to Quit, Wants $500,000 Deal

Jim Valvano and North Carolina State remain at odds over the financial terms on which he will leave as head basketball coach.

University counsel Becky French said that if Valvano refuses the school’s offer of $106,000--a year’s base salary--to leave after this season, then he can remain as coach for the 1990-91 season.

Art Kaminsky, Valvano’s agent, said the coach wants to be paid $500,000. Valvano has three years remaining on his contract.

The university will not agree to Kaminsky’s terms.

“Jim has two options,” French said. “He resigns and he can do whatever he wants to do. The other option is to treat Jim like any faculty member, and either party gives notice a year ahead of their departure.”

The buyout negotiations, which intensified in the past few days, follows point-shaving allegations against former N.C. State players, including Charles Shackleford.

Valvano says only that he has a contract and will honor his end of it if the school stands by its commitment.

“I have said from the beginning that I want to coach basketball at North Carolina State,” Valvano said. “I’ve also said that I wanted to do, in a sense, what was in the best interest of both the university and me.

“So I really felt it was incumbent upon the university to make decisions regarding how they feel about Jim Valvano because I said that this is what I’d like to do.”

Valvano has been under fire since last week, when ABC reported allegations of point-shaving at the school. The only player named in the report was Shackleford, who now plays for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets.