
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 25, 1990                   TAG: 9003251985
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

STATE MIGHT CONSIDER LAWSUIT AGAINST VALVANO

Negotiators appeared to have several options as they headed for a meeting likely to be held Monday on North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano's future.

One member of the N.C. State Board of Trustees said Valvano is willing to set aside a five-year contract with a $500,000 buyout clause if he is allowed to coach another year, the Greensboro News & Record reported in Saturday's editions.

"I do believe Jim Valvano would be amenable to tearing up his present contract and signing a one-year contract," said Daniel C. Gunter, one of three trustees who voted to support the embattled coach at a closed-door meeting last week.

"At the end of one year, if the university thought it was inappropriate for him to stay . . . he would leave without any objection," Gunter said. "The school wouldn't owe him a dime and he wouldn't owe them a dime."

However, Woody Webb, a Raleigh attorney retained by Valvano's agent, Art Kaminsky, on Friday, said N.C. State might be considering a lawsuit against Valvano instead of working through the contract.

"I understand that there's been talk of a lawsuit to be filed by them against coach Valvano for failing to execute or discharge his duties to ensure academic progress," Webb said Friday. He characterized Valvano's negotiating position as "wide open," but he added, "There's no reason the status quo shouldn't be maintained."

The contract calls for N.C. State to pay Valvano the equivalent of five years' salary if he is fired unless the coach commits an NCAA violation or is convicted of a felony. If Valvano quits, he would pay the school the same amount.

While N.C. State is on NCAA probation because players sold complimentary tickets and basketball shoes, Valvano was not implicated in the violation and has denied knowledge of the sales.

He also has not been implicated in Charles Shackleford's admitted acceptance of $60,000 in loans - some of it while at N.C. State. Nor has he been named in connection with a probe of an unidentified former player's claims of point-shaving on the team.

Shackleford now plays for the NBA's New Jersey Nets.

Valvano could not be reached for comment Saturday. N.C. State's attorney, Howard Manning, reached at his office Saturday afternoon, said only, "I will give you no comment at this time."

Earlier in the negotiations process, officials said N.C. State would be willing to pay about $100,000 if Valvano would resign. Kaminsky rejected the offer and further negotiations went behind closed doors with neither side discussing them.

While the ultimate decision is up to interim chancellor Larry Monteith, he hasn't spoken with Valvano since February, said the coach's secretary, Beverly Sparks.

"That just doesn't seem fair to me," she said.

by CNB