Nixon Gets to Play as Clippers Finally Win, 116-112, Over Bucks

Norm Nixon, 13 games late for the season and 15 minutes late for his welcome-back press conference Saturday night, eventually made it to the podium and somberly confirmed that, at long last, he had signed his contract and once again is a Clipper.

“I’m so happy this thing is over, so I can be doing what I should’ve been doing all along--playing,” said Nixon, who started earning his 5-year, $2.7-million contract Saturday but really wasn’t a factor as the Clippers’ ended an eight-game losing streak with an improbable 116-112 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in front of 8,215 at the Sports Arena.

Nixon’s first game as a Clipper on Saturday was probably James Donaldson’s last. The Clippers, perhaps as soon as Monday, will trade Donaldson to Dallas for Kurt Nimphius. The Mavericks also are expected to trade forward Dale Ellis and a first-round draft pick to New York for Darrell Walker.

Unless Coach Don Chaney has second thoughts after Donaldson’s 15 points and 12 rebounds Saturday night, the impending trade will thrust rookie Benoit Benjamin into the starting center position. According to sources in the Clipper organization, the trade is not related to Nixon signing a lucrative contract. The Clippers simply aren’t pleased with Donaldson’s play.

But it will help financially, too. Donaldson makes $515,000 this season and $560,000 next season, considerably more than Nimphius’ salary.

Clipper General Manager Carl Scheer would neither confirm nor deny the trade.

With the litigious Nixon negotiations finally over, club executives can turn their full attention to this trade and other moves to help the struggling Clippers, who didn’t play at all poorly in Saturday’s win. Marques Johnson, as usual, led the Clippers with 26 points, including two free throws with four seconds left to clinch the win. Rory White added 23 and point guard Franklin Edwards, who’ll eventually lose his job to Nixon, had 20 and a crucial steal in the final 30 seconds.

The final roadblocks in Nixon’s contract concerned $50,000 that Nixon and his agents said he was owed from a previous agreement. The Clippers maintained they didn’t owe Nixon any back salary.

Late Friday night, though, a compromise was reached. The Clippers agreed to add performance bonuses, concerning assists and making the All-Star team, as well as giving Nixon his own marketing rights and an allotment of tickets.

It was agreed upon in time for Nixon to make an appearance at the Clippers’ shoot-around Saturday morning. He was 15 minutes late for that, too. Coach Don Chaney said he was surprised to see Nixon there, especially after reading comments by agent Tom Collins that there was no way Nixon would play Saturday night.

“I felt so relieved,” Chaney said. “No one said anything to me. He just appeared.”

Nixon made his first appearance, for real, with 4:12 left in the first quarter. He ended the game with two points. During the often-acrimonious negotiations, which lasted five months, Nixon no doubt wondered if that moment would come.

For months, the Clippers would not budge from their original offer of $400,000 for one year, which was $300,000 and three years less than what Nixon asked. Then, the Clippers increased their offer by $100,000 and added two years, but Nixon rejected it.

It was only after the New York Knicks found a way to work around salary cap restrictions and tender an offer sheet to Albert King that Nixon’s representatives had serious interest from other teams. Eventaully, Seattle worked out a creative offer sheet for Nixon that was similar to the offer tendered King.

“I’d be in trouble,” Nixon replied, when asked what would’ve happened if the free-agent market didn’t open up.

The NBA’s appeal on the ruling by an arbitrator approving King’s contract will be heard Monday in New York. If that rule is overturned, the Clippers could try to void Nixon’s contract. Both Scheer and club president Alan Rothenberg said the Clippers have no such plans. “My position is, we’re staying out of court,” Scheer said. “We’ve got too many damn lawyers in the organization--including me. We shouldn’t litigate this.”

That news should be comforting to Nixon. There has been enough litigation during his free agency. Friday night, Rothenberg was so frustrated he said it would be “criminal” if Nixon didn’t play Saturday night.

Replied Nixon Saturday: “I could’ve played five or six weeks ago. I think that’s criminal.”

Other than that, all the bitternes was left behind. “I thought, at one time, both sides were at fault,” Chaney said. “But all that’s behind us now.”

Clipper Notes

Sidney Moncrief led Milwaukee with 24 points. Terry Cummings had 22. . . . In addition to the James Donaldson for- Kurt Nimphius trade, the Clippers are seriously considering waiving second-year guard Lancaster Gordon. No team is interested in trading for Gordon, who makes $200,000 this season, $250,000 next season and $400,000 in 1987-88--all of it guaranteed. If Gordon is waived, the Clippers would have to swallow his salary. . . . Even though Norm Nixon had signed enough documents to enable him to legally play Saturday, lawyer Jared Levine had more documents for Nixon to sign after the game. . . . Derek Smith is recovering a lot quicker than expected from a torn cartilage in his left knee. He jogged Friday and worked on his shooting and did some light running a few hours before Saturday’s game at the Sports Arena. . . . The Clippers next play in Seattle on Tuesday night.