Clippers Give Harper Guaranteed 4-Year Deal

The Clippers, facing the rare situation of negotiating with an injured free agent, signed Ron Harper to a four-year guaranteed contract worth more than $11 million Friday because they view him as a rare talent.

Although no details were disclosed, the Clippers have made a bold move by guaranteeing the majority of the money to a player who must again prove his talents after undergoing reconstructive knee surgery on Jan. 23. This season, for example, it is believed that Harper will earn more than $2 million although he is expected to miss almost half the campaign. January is the target for his return.

“Ron is a superstar, and the challenge was to pay him as a superstar while still addressing the risks involved in this situation,” said Bob Steele, chief executive officer of the Sterling Corp. and the team’s negotiator. “The truth is, we recognize Ron as one of the very top players in the NBA and we are going to pay him accordingly on a guaranteed basis. That’s the bottom line.

“Very few players in the NBA would ever get a guaranteed contract in this situation. But Ron is one of them.”

The deal, completed after three months of negotiations devoid of rancor, includes incentives for games and minutes and performance bonuses such as making the All-Star team and All-NBA. More important, there are no medical contingencies for a minimum number of games that might lessen Harper’s pay.

“It was the culmination of a long process made very complicated because of the status and the stature of the player involved,” said Mark Termini, Harper’s agent. “Those two facts made this very, very complicated negotiations, one for which we--the Clippers and I--could find no precedents. We went onto new ground when we structured this one.”

The Clippers apparently accepted the risk because of what Harper means to the franchise. He averaged 23 points for 28 games after arriving last Nov. 16 as part of the package that sent Reggie Williams and the rights to Danny Ferry to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The flair that came, too, was a bonus for a marketing department trying to sell tickets.

Harper earned $650,000 then, in the final season of a four-year contract he signed after the Cavaliers made him the eighth player drafted. The Clippers were not fazed by trading for someone who would soon be a restricted free agent and said from the start they would match any offer sheet Harper signed. They never had to exercise that right of first refusal.

“It’s a sign of faith that they asked me to sign a four-year deal,” said Harper, who has not had any setbacks in the rehabilitation of his injured right knee. “If they had no confidence in my return, they would have asked for only a two-year deal.”

After a hectic 11 days that included signing Harper and first-round draft choices Bo Kimble and Loy Vaught and deciding not to match the offer sheet Joe Wolf got from the Denver Nuggets, Clipper negotiators will get a rest until mid-November. Then, talks will begin on a long-term deal for Benoit Benjamin, about to begin the option year of his contract.