Clippers Say They’ll Match Nixon’s Offer Sheet : Team Wants Guard in Uniform Tonight, but Agent Seeks Contract Approval

Norm Nixon’s five-month fling as a free agent, chaotic and litigious from the start, continued in a similar manner Wednesday night, even though the Clippers finally agreed to match the offer sheet that the Seattle SuperSonics had tendered for the National Basketball Assn. guard.

The Clippers say that all the legal technicalities and contract language, which held up Nixon’s signing again Wednesday, should be worked out in time for Nixon to sign the contract and be in uniform for tonight’s game against Portland at the Sports Arena.

But that is not what Tom Collins, Nixon’s agent, said late Wednesday night. Collins said he wants a signed copy of the the contract sent to Larry Fleisher, the head of the players’ association, for approval. That action could delay Nixon’s signing at least a day.

“I want Fleisher to give me a verbal commitment that the contract is 100% pure and the Clippers won’t be able to challenge anything,” Collins said.

Collins also said he wants Nixon, before playing, to be paid back salary he apparently is owed from an agreement at the time he was traded to the team in 1983.

“Also, I just need time to find out what the Clippers are going to do,” Collins said.

The day began with hopes by Clipper executives that Nixon would be in uniform for Wednesday night’s game against the Lakers. General Manager Carl Scheer told Coach Don Chaney as much after owner Donald T. Sterling decided in the morning to match the SuperSonics’ five-year, $2.7-million offer.

But after another exhaustive day and night of legal maneuvering, during which the Clippers debated language of the contract with Nixon’s representatives, Nixon remained holed up in his Baldwin Hills home.

There were two problems that held up the signing Wednesday, which is why Collins rejected the Clipper request to have Nixon sit on the bench in street clothes at the Forum.

First, the Clippers sought to add a contingency clause that could strike down Nixon’s contract should the NBA win its appeal of an offer sheet that the New York Knicks tendered to Albert King, an offer sheet with a structure similar to Nixon’s contract. That appeal will be heard Monday.

Second, details had to be worked out on a $600,000 loan that Nixon will be paid within five days of signing. Originally, the Clippers wanted Nixon to get his own loan though the Bank of California while the team paid the interest. By late Wednesday afternoon, though, the Clippers had relented on both requests.

During the Laker-Clipper game, Arn Tellem, legal counsel for the Clippers, and Ted Steinberg, Nixon’s attorney, sat in Section 28 of the Forum and reviewed the contract.

Tellem left at halftime with the contract under his arm, saying he had to make minor revisions. “I would expect it to be done (Thursday) and Norm to play,” Tellem said. “I think it will be done.”

Scheer said: “It (the contract) is whatever they wanted. The loan wasn’t specifically worded, so it was a matter of getting it all down on paper. . . . It took time.”

Said Steinberg, who delivered two Manila envelopes containing the loan agreement to Tellem before the game: “It looks like we’re all set. We just have to read over the language of the loan promissory note and security agreement, and the Clippers have to approve it.”

There were reports from Seattle radio stations Wednesday that Nixon was saying he did not want to play for the Clippers. Nixon could not be reached for comment, but Steinberg said that Nixon told Seattle General Manager Lenny Wilkens Tuesday that he wanted to be a SuperSonic.

But Scheer said he talked to Nixon twice Wednesday and Nixon reportedly asked him: “Does that mean I can be able to practice tomorrow and play (Thursday night)?”

Steinberg said that Collins and Scheer argued Wednesday afternoon about the contract terms.

Collins said he had been told that the Clippers were working on a three-way trade that would send Nixon to New York. Both Scheer and Chaney denied any trade talk involving Nixon, who, if a deal were to be made, would have to waive a no-trade clause.

“We’re going to keep Norm,” Scheer said. “I don’t care if he hates management.”

Possibly by this morning, all the legal hassles and negotiating ploys will end, and the sides will agree to terms.

“Obviously, I wish we could’ve gotten Norman at the (Laker) game,” Clipper President Alan Rothenberg said. “Obviously, I wish we could have gotten him to take our earlier offers. But we had one value of him, and Norm went out and got an offer sheet with another value.”

The Clippers’ indecisiveness about signing Nixon figures to cost the club as much as an additional $600,000. The Clippers could have signed Nixon two weeks ago for $500,000 cash a year for three years, but Sterling insisted on deferring the maximum 30% for each year.

Nixon rejected that offer and received a complicated offer from Seattle for an estimated $650,000 a year for four guaranteed years.

“Every good salesman knows when to close a deal,” Collins said. “The Clippers could have gotten him for half what they did. Now, with their nickel and diming, they have to cough up more.”

Seattle winds up the big loser in the Nixon situation. Wednesday night, Wilkens told Seattle reporters that he had not been told officially about the Clippers matching the offer sheet, but he suspected that they had.

As for Scheer, he said: “I’m delightfully happy. We would’ve liked to have Norm signed in August. But that’s history. Let’s try to forget all about this.”