Wrong League

Ann Meyers signs with the pros

She was an All-America basketball player at U.C.L.A. for four straight years, the only woman ever so honored. As a senior, she led the Bruins to their first women's national championship. A star of the 1976 U.S. Olympic team, she can shoot and rebound well, but she excels as a playmaker. She sharpened her skills in pickup games against the guys -- and the guys were the N.B.A. playmates of her big brother Dave, a U.C.L.A. All-America and now a power forward for the Milwaukee Bucks. At the age of 24, Ann Meyers is the paradigm of the new woman athlete: tough, dedicated and talented.

But last week, she stepped out of her league. For $50,000, Meyers signed with the Indiana Pacers to become the first woman ever given a contract in men's bigtime professional sports.* This week she joins the Pacers' rookie camp to start the daunting struggle of winning a place in the high-pressure and punishing world of the pros. Among her competition for the eleven-person regular season roster is Indi ana's No. 1 draft choice, Dudley Bradley of North Carolina. A measure of the task facing Meyers: at 5 ft. 9 in., 135 lbs., she is 9 in. shorter and 60 lbs. lighter than Bradley, a man she will have to guard.

While no one questions her athletic ability, most coaches and owners around the league doubt that she will be able to offset her disadvantage in size and strength. N.B.A. basketball is a man's game, a very rough man's game. The territory beneath the backboards is one of the most violent in sport. Said Sonny Werblin, president of Madison Square Garden, which owns the New York Knicks, on hearing of the signing: "It's disgraceful, a travesty." Others accused the faltering Pacers of signing Meyers solely for publicity. Said Seattle SuperSonics Owner Sam Schulman: "It's a stunt, like Bill Veeck signing a midget when he owned a baseball team." But for Ann Meyers, it is the fulfillment of a dream, and she has no qualms. Said she: "I can dribble and make plays as well as anybody in the league. "The league will see.

* Under terms of the contract, Meyers is guaranteed some kind of job with the Pacers, even if she fails to make the playing roster.

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