Why isn't Norm Nixon ever talked about when discussing the showtime Lakers?

[1987_Lakers]

When you think 80's Lakers, you hear Magic, Kareem, Scott, Cooper, Worthy, and even Rambis but you rarely hear about Norm Nixon. IMO Nixon was better than both Cooper & Scott, he was pretty quick, had nice efficiency, a good passer, & won 2 titles with the Lakers. He and Magic both shared the ball handling duties, of course Lakers traded him for Scott because LA wanted Magic to take over the PG duties for good. He was a legit 17 points, 9 assists guy. When he ran his own team he averaged 11 apg. Dude was legit.

Reason why he isn't talked about much probably is because the league wasn't a popular sports in the early 80's and 84-88 is when the Lakers were in all these historic battles with the Celtics & Pistons, a period of time when Nixon had already left.

[1987_Lakers]

Fun fact: Jerry West never really liked Norm Nixon, he hired private investigators to spy on Nixon and see if he was doing any drugs.

[GimmeThat]

When you think 80's Lakers, you hear Magic, Kareem, Scott, Cooper, Worthy, and even Rambis but you rarely hear about Norm Nixon. IMO Nixon was better than both Cooper & Scott, he was pretty quick, had nice efficiency, a good passer, & won 2 titles with the Lakers. He and Magic both shared the ball handling duties, of course Lakers traded him for Scott because LA wanted Magic to take over the PG duties for good. He was a legit 17 points, 9 assists guy. When he ran his own team he averaged 11 apg. Dude was legit.

Reason why he isn't talked about much probably is because the league wasn't a popular sports in the early 80's and 84-88 is when the Lakers were in all these historic battles with the Celtics & Pistons, a period of time when Nixon had already left.


maybe his seat on the team was just luke warm before he got traded away

honestly don't know why

[iamgine]

Same reason why John Paxson rarely get talked about compared to Steve Kerr.

[Rubio2Gasol]

He wasn't on the showtime Lakers.

He was pre showtime, before they let Magic run the show.

[Ass Dan]

When you think 80's Lakers, you hear Magic, Kareem, Scott, Cooper, Worthy, and even Rambis but you rarely hear about Norm Nixon. IMO Nixon was better than both Cooper & Scott, he was pretty quick, had nice efficiency, a good passer, & won 2 titles with the Lakers. He and Magic both shared the ball handling duties, of course Lakers traded him for Scott because LA wanted Magic to take over the PG duties for good. He was a legit 17 points, 9 assists guy. When he ran his own team he averaged 11 apg. Dude was legit.

Reason why he isn't talked about much probably is because the league wasn't a popular sports in the early 80's and 84-88 is when the Lakers were in all these historic battles with the Celtics & Pistons, a period of time when Nixon had already left.

he wasn't around for much of it passed the beginning?

[That_Admiral]

I was reading in a book, that he had 'beef' with Magic, so that might also be a reason why he isn't as talked about. By beef i mean he did not like Magic running the show, and also taking up his minutes

[JellyBean]

Fun fact: Jerry West never really liked Norm Nixon, he hired private investigators to spy on Nixon and see if he was doing any drugs.


You read the book (Showtime by Pearlman), huh? :oldlol:

I think that Norm is never mentioned with Showtime Lakers is because it was Magic that complemented "Showtime" the best. Norm was a heck of a point guard. But Magic made "Showtime".

[Roundball_Rock]

He and Magic both shared the ball handling duties, of course Lakers traded him for Scott because LA wanted Magic to take over the PG duties for good. He was a legit 17 points, 9 assists guy.

This is a big reason why. He screws up the narrative: Magic showed up and began running "Showtime" from the beginning and led the Lakers to 5 rings. In reality Magic shared ballhandling duties with Nixon for the first years and it clearly was Kareem's team.

[G.O.A.T]

When you think 80's Lakers, you hear Magic, Kareem, Scott, Cooper, Worthy, and even Rambis but you rarely hear about Norm Nixon. IMO Nixon was better than both Cooper & Scott, he was pretty quick, had nice efficiency, a good passer, & won 2 titles with the Lakers. He and Magic both shared the ball handling duties, of course Lakers traded him for Scott because LA wanted Magic to take over the PG duties for good. He was a legit 17 points, 9 assists guy. When he ran his own team he averaged 11 apg. Dude was legit.

Reason why he isn't talked about much probably is because the league wasn't a popular sports in the early 80's and 84-88 is when the Lakers were in all these historic battles with the Celtics & Pistons, a period of time when Nixon had already left.

You hit on the main reasons and others have followed up well. I'll try to expand a bit more.

As you mentioned, Nixon was traded for Byron Scott and Swen Nater in the off-season of 1983. The Lakers were coming off being man handled by the 76ers in the NBA Finals and the popular belief, especially amongst Riley and West was that the Lakers needed another Big Man to help Kareem. However to complete the Nater for Nixon swap, the Lakers insisted on getting Rookie Byron Scott.

To be fair to Nixon and his obvious ability, the deal was criticzed at the time. But the Lakers and Pat Riley saw the bigger picture here.

''There's no way it was going to be a Swen Nater-for-Norm Nixon trade,'' he said. ''That's not being derogatory toward Swen, but be realistic.''''People are being unrealistic when they try to compare them immediately,'' Riley says. ''Norm will have more of an impact because they needed help now, badly. With Byron, it's going to take time. But we don't think we made a mistake. He's a prototype off-guard, but we have to be patient.'

The Lakers and Celtics rivalry took off the next year as the David Stern era began and the NBA's marketing strategy and not coincidentally the games popularity took off. That was the time the NBA Finals and NBA TV ratings really took off and before people could get to know Nixon, he was banished to the Clippers. As you can imagine he didn't get as much face time there.

So the first part is just bad timing, Nixon was on the Lakers two least celebrated title teams of the era.

Additionally, there is the internal stuff, grudge holding, pride, etc.

Jerry West and Nixon never liked each other. West was, as you mentioned above suspicious of Nixon's social life and didn't like his confidence which he saw as arrogance.

The normally subdued West would say of Nixon shortly before the trade When Nixon had what was, for him, an off season in 1982-83...

"Norm's always got an answer for everything, especially when he's wrong," West says. "That's one of his big problems."

Nixon was not shy to opine either. Asked about playing guard for the legendary Lakers guard...

"I never saw Jerry West play a basketball game, and I never saw him coach one."

Also on sharing the ball and the back court with Magic

"During Magic's first year the ball was taken away from me," Nixon says. "It was frustrating. After handling the ball all the time for two years, I thought I had proven myself at my position." "I don't think I ever adjusted to that," Nixon says. "I had a mental block about it. It was a totally different perspective, looking at the side of the basket. (when playing off the ball) My effectiveness was cut down tremendously."

I think Riley sums it up best when describing Nixon.

[I]"Everything that's ever been written about Norm has said he's a rebel, he's a militant, he's trouble," says Riley. "But he's none of those things. He's just Norm

[G.O.A.T]

This is a big reason why. He screws up the narrative: Magic showed up and began running "Showtime" from the beginning and led the Lakers to 5 rings. In reality Magic shared ballhandling duties with Nixon for the first years and it clearly was Kareem's team.

Let's not get off topic, but it was Magic's team from 1982 on. Even if Kareem was a better player. They moment they fired a coach for Magic to silence his trade demands they made it his team. Magic finished ahead of Kareem in the MVP voting every year from 1982 on.

[Dr.J4ever]

When you think 80's Lakers, you hear Magic, Kareem, Scott, Cooper, Worthy, and even Rambis but you rarely hear about Norm Nixon. IMO Nixon was better than both Cooper & Scott, he was pretty quick, had nice efficiency, a good passer, & won 2 titles with the Lakers. He and Magic both shared the ball handling duties, of course Lakers traded him for Scott because LA wanted Magic to take over the PG duties for good. He was a legit 17 points, 9 assists guy. When he ran his own team he averaged 11 apg. Dude was legit.

Reason why he isn't talked about much probably is because the league wasn't a popular sports in the early 80's and 84-88 is when the Lakers were in all these historic battles with the Celtics & Pistons, a period of time when Nixon had already left.

Nixon was a heck of a player. He was a key contributor and thorn on the Sixer's side when we lost to the Lakers in the early 80s. You are right about the NBA marketing part. I noticed that as well.

The League took off around the mid 80s with the Laker-Celtic rivalry reborn and Bird-Magic, but when it was Sixer-Lakers in the early 80s, it wasn't really Magic. It was KAJ, plus Magic, Wilkes, Nixon, Cooper, Mcadoo. So history has somehow passed him a little.