Why did Lakers trade Norm Nixon? Shedding light on controversial trade from 83-84 season
Back in the early 1980s, the LA Lakers were creating their dynasty, with Norm Nixon as a cornerstone member of the franchise.
Nixon shared the point guard position with the legendary Magic Johnson, who had joined the team in 1979. The point guards managed to coexist at first, but their good relationship didn't last long.
Norm Nixon was traded to the LA Clippers (then San Diego Clippers) for Byron Scott at the start of the 1983-84 season. This was a surprise, as Norm Nixon had helped them claim championships in 1980 and 1982.
While the exact reason remains unclear, the most likely scenario was Nixon's rocky relationship with Johnson and Jerry West (former coach and general manager of the Lakers).
Nixon and Magic didn't see eye-to-eye after Magic's first seasons with the Lakers, as Nixon thought he was still the team's top point guard.
On "The Cedric Maxwell Podcast" in 2022, Nixon said:
"I wanted to win, and I wasn't worried about my job. I knew, with Magic coming in, they were going to figure out a way for us to play together. I wasn't worried about him coming in, taking my job. That wasn't even in my mentality.
"Do I think he went in there and fought for me? No. But management makes trades. You can say whatever you want to say. Management has to make decisions."
Lakers guard Ron Carter said that their relationship was based on competition both on and off the court, and that led the team to pick Johnson over Nixon (via sportingnews.com):
"[Nixon] saw everything Magic did as a competition. For the ball. For playing time. For women. Who's the coolest? Who's the smartest? Me and [Michael Cooper] would sit back and just watch."
As for Jerry West, he coached Norm Nixon for two years (1977-1979) and said that he was one of his best players:
"Norm probably never realized this, but he was one of my favorite guys. He was very talented and very competitive. But he was wild, and he made some stupid mistakes. I was harder on him than anyone else because I knew what was there.
"Even to this day, I'm not so sure Norm Nixon doesn't think of me as the anti-Christ."
It came to a head during the 1982-83 season, as West thought Nixon was using drugs. In Jeff Pearlman's book, "Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s," he wrote that West "hired a private investigation agency to follow Nixon and file a detailed report on his behavior."
Nixon refuted the notion that he was using drugs to Cedric Maxwell:
"Once the perception of being a drug user is out there, it's very hard to erase. There were articles that talked about me buying quaaludes and cocaine — totally untrue."
This signaled the end of Nixon's career with the Lakers, and the point guard moved to the Clippers. There, he spent six years before retiring due to injuries that cost him a couple of seasons.
Were the Lakers successful in the 1983-84 season after trading Norm Nixon?
With Norman Nixon out and Byron Scott in, the Lakers maintained their contending status in the 1983/84 season.
They finished the regular season with a 54-28 record and made it to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in seven games.
A year later, in 1985, the Lakers defeated the Celtics in six games, winning for the first time after losing eight straight NBA Finals series to Boston.