Clippers’ Latest Offer to Nixon Is Withdrawn

Another intriguing new character has emerged in the long and increasingly bitter negotiations between free-agent guard Norm Nixon and the Clippers, further confusing an already chaotic situation.

Irving Azoff, president of MCA Records and the former manager of the Eagles rock group, contacted Clipper General Manager Carl Scheer on behalf of Nixon last weekend to try to break the impasse between the Clippers and agents Tom Collins and Fred Slaughter.

But Monday night, after Azoff said he no longer would help negotiate, the gap widened. The Clippers sent a registered letter to Collins saying that their offer of $500,000 a year for three years has been withdrawn because of Collins’ “globetrotting around the NBA trying to find an offer sheet.”

Collins, in turn, told The Times Monday night that he will file a grievance today with the league office, claiming that the Clippers owe Nixon money from an agreement reached shortly after Nixon was traded to the Clippers in 1983.

Scheer’s reply: “We don’t owe him any salary.”

“At this point, there’s a better chance of re-forming the Eagles than getting Norm Nixon in a Clipper uniform this week,” Azoff said.

Collins, who says Nixon won’t agree to the Clippers’ demand to defer the maximum 30% of his salary each season, said that Houston Rockets will make a final decision today about the possibility of tendering Nixon an offer. Scheer said this is merely another stall tactic.

“We’re tired of being treated like chopped liver by Collins and Norm,” Scheer said. “We were frustrated. We didn’t know what else to do.”

The biggest problem recently for the Clippers, who meet Golden State here tonight, might be figuring out which of Nixon’s representatives to call. Nixon seems to have more agents than the CIA. And Scheer recently contacted a Denver lawyer who is close to both Scheer and Nixon, but that didn’t work, either.

Slaughter is Nixon’s longtime agent, but after he and Scheer had irreconcilable differences about a week ago, Collins was enlisted to handle the negotiations. Collins became involved while negotiating with Azoff on a record contract for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, another Collins client.

Progress was made under Collins. But after Nixon rejected the Clippers’ three-year, $1.5-million offer because of the high deferral rate, talks broke down again. “I’ve told Norm not to take any deferred money,” Collins said. “He’s got to remember he’s an All-Star.”

That’s when Azoff, who says he’s a friend of Nixon and Clipper owner Donald T. Sterling and president Alan Rothenberg, was asked to act as a third party. Azoff approached Scheer at halftime of last Saturday’s Clipper loss to Atlanta and told Scheer he would talk to Nixon and try to work out something.

Over the weekend, Scheer said he had casual talks with Azoff, who, in turn, talked with Nixon and Allen. But they did not near an agreement. Sources said Nixon would sign immediately if the Clippers would pay him $500,000 cash--none deferred.

Meanwhile, Collins said the three representatives agreed Monday that Collins would be the sole negotiator and spokesman.

“I’m out of it now. I just tried to expedite the damn thing,” Azoff said. “I wanted to bring both sides together, but now they’re apart again.”

Said Collins: “I really appreciate what Irving has done, because he’s an interested friend of Norm’s. But we just felt there were too many voices in the choir.”

Scheer agreed.

“There are too many chefs in the kitchen.”

Even Clipper Coach Don Chaney, who said he talked to Azoff recently, said he doesn’t know who to believe.

“There are too many fingers in the pot,” Chaney said.

That’s also too many cliches in one story, but it gets the point across. Nixon could not be reached for comment Monday, but Chaney said that Nixon is “very mixed up” by all that’s happening.

Clipper guard Derek Smith visited Nixon Sunday night and said:

“He wants to play, and we all want him to. I told him that I played point guard for two minutes, and the first three times I handled the ball, I turned it over. Hopefully, management saw that and realizes how much we need Norm.

“Norm doesn’t want to play for Houston or Indiana. But he’s not going to play for less than he’s worth. I told him he shouldn’t give in. He deserves it.”

So, the battle lines have been drawn again, and all the known combatants have been identified. As former Eagle Don Henley, one of Azoff’s clients, sings: “Who will go the distance? We’ll find out in the long run.”