U.S. to Unleash NBA in Bid for Olympic Gold : Basketball: Coach will be one of current 27 in pro ranks, and players will be named without having to go through trials in ’92.

Continuing the move toward a professional-oriented U.S. Olympic basketball team, a 12-member Games committee decided Thursday that an NBA coach would lead the team in 1992.

In addition, the group meeting on the first day of the annual NBA meetings said that Olympic trials would be shelved, at least for the next Games. Instead, the U.S. team will be selected in about February of ’92 by a panel of NBA and college coaches and administrators.

USA Basketball is expected to approve the changes Oct. 2 at Colorado Springs, Colo., before the U.S. Olympic Committee gives a final OK.

No timetable was established to name the coach, only the guidelines by which he will be selected. The panel decided that candidates:

--Must have at least eight years’ experience as a coach on the collegiate or professional levels, at least three of those seasons in the NBA.

--Must have been an NBA coach for two of the three years before the Barcelona Games in the summer of ‘92, which means the current 27 coaches will form the pool.

--Cannot have any conflicts, described by C.M. Newton, athletic director at the University of Kentucky and chairman of the Games committee for USA Basketball, as being agents or involved with marketing of products.

Of those who meet the criteria, Don Nelson of the Golden State Warriors and Larry Brown of the San Antonio Spurs have both expressed interest in the job. Nelson went so far as to attend the recent World Championships in Buenos Aires, where the United States failed to win the gold medal.

With college players and college coaches going against foreign teams that included some NBA players, the United States also failed to win titles in this summer’s Goodwill Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympics. But, said Newton and Dave Gavitt, president of USA Basketball, Thursday’s move was planning for the future, not reaction to the past.

“It’s a transition period, so we felt NBA players playing in the Olympics for the first time would have a comfort level with an NBA coach,” said Gavitt, executive vice president of the Boston Celtics.

Another active NBA head coach will serve as an Olympic assistant. Two other assistants will be chosen among active college head coaches who have at least five years’ experience as a head coach in college or the pros and have “considerable experience” in international competition. One of those must be from Division I.

It’s reasonable to assume that some players might be worn out from Olympic play before the following NBA season, or, for that matter, from NBA play before Olympic practice and competition. The group selected will be one of four to qualify for the Olympics from a zone tournament of teams from North, Central and South America. By international rules, that competition, at a site to be determined in the United States, must be completed by July 5, so some players may be going straight from the NBA finals. The Games are scheduled for the last week of July and the first week of August.

Whether the pro players will be paid to play was not discussed at the meeting, but insurance will be paid by the NBA.

All decisions, Gavitt stressed, are for the 1992 Games only.