Howard’s End a Mystery Even With Bullet Signing

Free agent Juwan Howard, who signed with the Miami Heat last month only to have the NBA reject the contract because it exceeded the league’s salary cap, signed with his former team, the Washington Bullets, on Monday, leaving him, in effect, under contract with two teams at the same time.

The Bullets re-signed the all-star forward to a multiyear contract that sources said will pay him at least as much as the seven-year, $100.8-million deal he signed with the Heat.

However, it remained unclear Monday night whether Howard will be playing the 1996-97 NBA season for the Bullets or the Heat.

“The agreement with Howard will not be fully effective until certain legal issues regarding the arrangement between Howard and the Miami Heat have been resolved,” Bullet legal counsel David Osnos said, according to a statement released by the club.

The Bullets will have to surrender a first-round draft choice to keep Howard, but they will be allowed to keep the other players they have under contract, including those they have acquired since Howard signed with the Heat, sources familiar with the situation said.

Asked whether Howard would prefer to play for the Bullets or the Heat, Curtis Polk, president of the firm that represents him, said, “We have no comment. He has been advised by us he should make no comment until the legal issues between the Heat and the NBA are resolved. I’m not going to make any comments about which scenario he likes better.”

The NBA and the Heat had no immediate comment Monday night.

“This isn’t a resolution at all,” said one of the persons involved in the complex negotiations surrounding the case, explaining why all sides are reluctant to discuss publicly the issues.

The league ruled last Wednesday that the Heat had exceeded the salary cap by agreeing to pay Howard $9 million this season.

Teams are allowed to exceed the salary cap, which will be at least $24.3 million this season, to re-sign their own players. They are not allowed to exceed the salary cap to sign players from other teams.

The Heat and the NBA’s players’ union disagreed with the league’s ruling. The matter is scheduled to be resolved by a panel of two arbitrators. The sides hope to name the arbitrators this week and convene a hearing by Aug. 15.

Last Thursday, the NBA declared Howard a free agent, allowing him to sign with any of the league’s 29 teams. That prompted the Heat to go to Florida state court Friday, and Dade County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Farina granted the club a temporary injunction. The order states that unless the dispute over the validity of the Heat’s contract with Howard is resolved, Howard cannot sign with another team--and the NBA cannot approve such a contract--unless the contract recognizes “the prior validity and superiority” of the Heat’s deal with Howard.

Howard’s contract with the Bullets complies with the court order, Polk said. In addition, the deal has the implicit consent of the league and the union, which had to agree that the Bullets could exceed the salary cap to re-sign Howard after he theoretically had become a member of another team.

“It was not until we were notified of the NBA’s decision to restore [the Bullets’ ability to exceed the salary cap to re-sign Howard] that Washington was a real option,” Polk said.