NBA -- Drexler, Blazers Defer Deal -- Contract Negotiations Set For End Of Season

PORTLAND - Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trail Blazers have agreed to put contract discussions on hold until the end of the season, the team said yesterday.

"Both the team and Drexler have agreed to defer further conversations until after the upcoming season to concentrate on basketball," according to a statement issued by the team.

Drexler, unhappy with his salary after seeing recent huge contracts awarded to newcomers and veterans in the NBA this year, skipped a practice without notice Oct. 22 and said afterward that he was considering holding out or asking to be traded.

But when the Blazers returned from a three-game exhibition road trip last week, both he and the team's management toned down the rhetoric and said they were holding talks aimed at resolving the dispute.

Drexler, 31, has three years left on a contract that pays him $1.5 million in each of the next two seasons, followed by a balloon payment of $8.75 million in 1995-96. He has said that he wants to raise his annual salary to about $7 million per year. That would require a one-year, $17 million extension.

Also yesterday, the Blazers waived guard A.J. English, reducing their roster to 15 players. English played for the Washington Bullets in the 1990-91 and '91-92 seasons.

BIG SHOES FOR MYERS

DEERFIELD, Ill. - Journeyman guard Pete Myers is the leading candidate to take Michael Jordan's spot in the starting lineup for the Chicago Bulls, Coach Phil Jackson said.

The 6-foot-6 Myers, who played for Chicago, San Antonio, Philadelphia and New York before spending the past two years in Italy, was not even expected to make the team when training camp opened. Myers, a sixth-round draft pick of Chicago's in 1986, is considered a defensive specialist.

Meanwhile, Jordan had fun practicing with the Bulls yesterday, but he still doesn't want to play basketball all the time. "I was out of shape," he said last night on CNN's "Larry King Live." "It felt good, but I didn't miss it."

NOTES

-- Los Angeles Clipper forward John Williams, who is in a weight-loss clinic, will be placed on the suspended list. There is no projected date for Williams' return. The Washington Bullets suspended Williams for the entire 1991-92 season after the 6-foot-9 forward ballooned to more than 300 pounds after undergoing knee surgery. Williams was traded to the Clippers last year.

-- A Phoenix bar and grill partly owned by Phoenix Sun Dan Majerle was spared closure by health authorities who earlier threatened to shut the establishment because it flunked inspection. Majerle's Sports Grill flunked an Oct. 18 inspection because workers found flies in the kitchen, food in a hand-washing sink and food being stored at the wrong temperature. It passed yesterday's re-inspection. -- New Jersey center Benoit Benjamin will be sidelined about two weeks because of a urinary tract infection. Dwayne Schintzius will take over for Benjamin, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers for center Sam Bowie.

Information from the Baltimore Sun is included in this report.