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Basketball player and talent agent Norm Nixon was born on October 11, 1955 in Macon, Georgia to Mary Jo and Elmer Nixon. Nixon graduated from Southwest High School in 1973, where he and the basketball team won their first state championship the same year. He then attended and played basketball for Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1977.
Nixon was the twenty-second overall pick in the 1977 NBA Draft, selected by the Los Angeles Lakers. His rookie season he was ranked fourth in the league in assists and was named to the All-NBA Rookie Team. In Nixon’s second season, he led the league in steals and ranked third in assists. In his third season with the Lakers, Nixon led the league in minutes played and ranked third again in assists, and the team won the 1980 Finals in six games against the Philadelphia 76ers. For the 1980-1981 season, Nixon ranked second in the league in assists. The following season, he played in the All-Star Game and the Lakers won the Finals against the 76ers in six games again. In the 1982-1983 season, the Lakers returned to the Finals where they faced the 76ers, but lost in four games. Nixon was then traded to the San Diego Clippers. In his first season here, he set a franchise record of an average of 17.2 points per game and 11.1 assists per game, making him lead the league in assists. During the 1984-1985 season, the Clippers moved to Los Angeles and Nixon played in the All-Star Game. After the 1985-1986 season, Nixon injured his left knee, which benched him for the 1986-1987 season. Nixon returned to the NBA for his final season in 1988, before retiring and briefly playing in Italy. He ended his career with 12,065 points (15.7 per game) and 6,386 assists (8.3 per game) in 768 games played. His assist average has him in the NBA’s top fifteen, and he shares the league’s record for most minutes played in a game, which was sixty-four. Nixon subsequently invested in properties, and became a sports agent with Premier Management Group Inc. He later co-founded his own agencies, Nixon-Katz Associates and Norm Nixon & Associates, where he also managed musical talent like LL Cool J and TLC. Nixon was a radio commentator for the Clippers briefly, and did analyst work for KABC-TV's NBA post-game shows. In 2010, he was hired as a color analyst for Lakers’ home games on Fox Sports West.
In 1979, Nixon was featured in the sports film, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, where he met actress Debbie Allen, whom he later married in 1984. He also attended real estate school.
Nixon resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife. He has a son, DeVaughn Nixon, and two children with Debbie, Vivian and Norman Nixon, Jr.
Norman Nixon was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on October 15, 2019.