Players Dunked in a Hard Court : Pro basketball: A federal judge rules that the NBA’s salary cap, college draft and right of first refusal are legal.

A federal judge in New York City on Monday sent the NBA back to its usual off-season business, ruling against the players’ union on key antitrust issues.

That freed teams and players to resume the signing of contracts, clearing the way for trades.

U.S. District Judge Kevin Duffy, clearly agitated that the union and league were “using the court as a bargaining chip� during negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, declared that the salary cap, college draft and right of first refusal were legal.

The players association had argued that the salary cap violated antitrust law, but Duffy ruled that the NBA was not subject to the law as long as it has a collective bargaining relationship with the union.

Duffy also criticized NBA lawyers for “sharp and shady practices of the type that most ethical lawyers shun� for filing its lawsuit as a preemptive strike because the union had threatened to sue. The union then countersued, using its most visible unrestricted free agents, such as Danny Manning, Dominique Wilkins and Horace Grant, as plaintiffs.

The union will appeal the decision, according to lawyer Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. In the meantime, the sides are free to continue negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement. The last one ran out the day after Game 7 of the finals last month.

The ramifications of Duffy’s deciding against the league would have been momentous. Most notably, it would have made all players picked in last month’s draft unrestricted free agents and eliminated the salary cap, returning the pursuit of free agents, veterans and first-year players to outright bidding wars.

Within hours of the ruling, Seattle sent Ricky Pierce, first-round pick Carlos Rogers and two second-round choices in the 1995 draft to Golden State for Sarunas Marciulionis and Byron Houston. The trade had been agreed to the day after the June 29 draft but had been held up until players could make contract adjustments to fit the salary cap.

Detroit is expected to re-sign free agent Sean Elliott and then trade him, possibly back to San Antonio for rookie Bill Curley. That move would give the Pistons some needed size up front and also put them about $6 million under the salary cap, allowing them room to sign someone such as Grant, who has said he wouldn’t mind joining a rebuilding movement after winning three titles with Chicago, and lottery pick Grant Hill.

Manning, meanwhile, still has no interest in going to a team that is years away from challenging for a championship, having already traveled that route with the Clippers. He has narrowed his choices to four or five teams, one of them the Lakers. His agent, Ron Grinker, says Atlanta is “barely� in the picture.