Nixon Signs Second Pact With Sonics

The Seattle SuperSonics, responding to objections raised by the Clippers and National Basketball Assn. officials, tendered a revised offer sheet Tuesday to free-agent guard Norm Nixon, who first signed with Seattle last Thursday.

The new offer sheet is believed to be close to the same amount Nixon received in the original contract, which was for $2.7 million over five years. But terms have been added, subtracted and some contract language reworded to satisfy salary-cap restrictions.

Three incentive bonuses Nixon was to receive in the original offer sheet have been deleted after the NBA and the players’ union agreed those bonuses would place Seattle over the $4.2-million salary cap limit.

But the up-front loan Nixon will receive in the first year of the contract, which the Clippers have claimed is invalid, not only remains in the offer but has been increased from $500,000 to $600,000 at 10% interest. Wording of the loan also has been changed.

The only other significant change is in the fifth year, an option year. The date in which Seattle has to decide whether to keep Nixon for a fifth season at $650,000 or pay him $200,000 and release him has been extended.

Both Nixon and Lenny Wilkens, Seattle’s general manager, signed the revised offer Tuesday in Los Angeles. The contract was delivered to the Clippers’ offices early Tuesday night, and the Clippers have 15 days to match the revised contract or lose Nixon.

Carl Sheer, the Clipper general manager, said his intention remains the same. “We’ll match the offer sheet. I don’t think it will take all 15 days.”

The Clippers, who Monday failed in an attempt to convince the NBA to declare the loan invalid, also are considering commencing a hearing with arbitrator Kingman Brewster to decide the validity of the loan.

Arn Tellem, the Clippers’ general counsel, said he will review the revised offer today. But Clipper President Alan Rothenberg, who had not read the new offer sheet, said: “Unfortunately, that (arbitration) is what it looks like it’s going to come to.”

Larry Fleisher, head of the players’ association, said the Clippers don’t have power to initiate an arbitration. “Only the league can do that now,” Fleisher said.

Before devising the new offer sheet, Nixon’s representatives said they checked with Fleisher and Gary Bettman, the NBA’s general counsel, and were assured that the loan is valid under the collective bargaining agreement.

“The only problem I had with the (original) offer sheet was the incentive bonuses,” Bettman said. “Those other questions (such as the loan) the Clippers are going to have to deal with.”

Ted Steinberg, who works on contracts for Tom Collins and Fred Slaughter, Nixon’s agents, said that Tellem told him that the Clippers will “exhaust every legal remedy that’s available.”

Collins and Steinberg said the reason the SuperSonics and Nixon’s representatives added $100,000 to the loan and changed the terms to secure the loan was to make it more difficult for the Clippers to sign Nixon.

“I think the Clippers should start working on matching it,” Collins said.

Said Rothenberg: “If the loan was questionable before, I guess this makes it even more questionable.”

Sources said the Clippers are trying to trade highly paid second-year guard Lancaster Gordon to offset the salary Nixon will be paid. Scheer denied talk that the Clippers are trying to trade either Gordon or center James Donaldson.

The Clippers received Seattle’s original offer sheet to Nixon last Friday and worked to try to change the terms. Nixon’s representatives refused the Clippers’ request to restructure the loan, so Clipper executives spent last weekend looking for flaws in the contract.

The Clippers claimed that Nixon’s loan at 10% interest was unrealistic and should count against Seattle’s salary cap. “There’s no way he could get anything less than 13% from an employer,” Tellem said Monday.

The NBA, however, approved the loan, meaning the SuperSonics only had to change or delete incentive bonuses Nixon would receive if the club won the Pacific Division title, Western Conference title or NBA title.

Said union leader Fleisher: “It’s up to the Clippers now to match it or not. The incentive problem has been cleared up. I don’t see any way they can challenge it, but they can sure try to.”