Coleman Rejects $69-Million Contract Offer

Derrick Coleman rejected an eight-year, $69-million contract from the New Jersey Nets on Monday that would have made the power forward the NBA’s highest-paid player per season.

“It’s a credible offer, but it’s not acceptable,” said Harold MacDonald, Coleman’s lawyer.

MacDonald said the $4.2 million base salary in the initial year was too low. He also said the contract took too long for the most lucrative figures to kick in and that control of the option year--the eighth year overall--was in the wrong hands.

The Nets control the option year in their offer. MacDonald said Coleman wants control of the option year, one which would net him $13 million a season when he is 34.

“If Derrick had to sign this year it might be an agreeable offer,” MacDonald said. “But Derrick doesn’t have to sign this year and look at where the salaries have gone. Who knows what’s going to happen next year.”

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Matt Guokas quit his front-office job with the Orlando Magic to join NBC as the network’s analyst on NBA games.

Guokas, who played for the 1966-67 NBA champion Philadelphia 76ers, replaces Mike Fratello, who left NBC to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers. Guokas will work alongside Marv Albert.

Guokas coached the Magic for four years before he was made vice president of basketball development this season.

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Guard Walt Williams of the Sacramento Kings suffered a stress fracture in his left leg during the team’s first practice game and will be sidelined about five weeks.

Baseball

Mike Piazza, who set several records for the Dodgers and a major league mark for the most home runs by a rookie catcher, was selected Baseball America’s rookie of the year.

Only two members of Manager Davey Johnson’s coaching staff will be back on the field with the Cincinnati Reds next year.

Ray Knight, bench coach and hitting instructor, and Don Gullett, pitching coach, were rehired. Both came with Johnson when he replaced Tony Perez as manager 44 games into the 1993 season.

College Athletics

Members of the Black Coaches Assn. will boycott a National Assn. of Basketball Coaches issues summit that begins today in Charlotte, N.C.

The BCA will have a summit of its own today with members of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington. Drake Coach Rudy Washington, the founder and director of the BCA, Nolan Richardson of Arkansas, John Thompson of Georgetown, John Chaney of Temple, George Raveling of USC, and Vivian Stringer, the women’s coach at Iowa, are expected to attend.

Miscellany

The Tampa Bay Lightning recalled center Brent Gretzky from Atlanta of the International Hockey League, possibly setting up the first-ever NHL meeting between Gretzky and his elder brother, Wayne, the NHL’s all-time leading scorer who will lead the Kings against the Lightning Wednesday night at the ThunderDome . . . Grant Dalton’s 84-foot ketch New Zealand Endeavour is expected to lead the fleet into Punta del Este, Uruguay, today to complete the first leg of the sixth Whitbread Round the World Race.

Iraq replaced national team soccer Coach Adnan Dirjal because soccer officials warned Dirjal about his temper tantrum after a defeat by North Korea in the Asian World Cup qualification tournament.