PITTSBURGH — Norm Nixon hasn't lost any of the fire or swag that helped the Duquesne University basketball legend win two championships with the Showtime Lakers of the 1980s. For proof, just ask his son, DeVaughn.
"We'll be watching basketball games and he'll be like, 'DeVaughn, you know I was a beast on that court,'" Nixon, 38, told the Post-Gazette. "'When I go back to Pittsburgh and Macon, [Georgia] they know your dad.'
"I'm like, 'All right man, I get it, you played for the NBA and you're better than me. That's why I act.'"
Nixon has been working in Hollywood since he was a kid, but he recently embarked on his greatest acting challenge yet: portraying his father in "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty," which premiered Sunday on HBO. The series is based on Jeff Pearlman's 2014 book, "Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s."
Both the book and show highlight the many colorful characters who contributed to the Lakers winning five NBA championships from 1980 through 1988 — including "Stormin'" Norman Nixon.
"My biggest thing with doing this was to put the looking glass on him for a change," his son said. "He's always been a very private person ... but I think he's going to thoroughly enjoy it."
Though his father still occasionally comes back to Pittsburgh for events at his alma mater, Nixon isn't particularly connected to the city or Duquesne. That said, he appreciates Pittsburgh for being "the town that kind of made his career" in the mid-'70s and Duquesne for continuing to honor his father's legacy. The university retired his No. 10 jersey in 2001.
Movies were always a huge part of Nixon's life. His mother — actor, dancer and choreographer Debbie Allen — would regularly drop off him and his grandfather at a Los Angeles movie theater and the two would spend the day theater-hopping until she picked them up later that evening. Watching the way pop star Michael Jackson was able to draw emotion out of a crowd also helped instill Nixon with a passion for performing.
He began his entertainment career as a model for a video game, which is where talent scouts first saw his face. Soon he was making movies. Nixon was only 5 years old when he acted in his first movie, 1990's "To Sleep With Anger." He went on to have small roles in classics like 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and 1992's "The Bodyguard."
He said he was too young to realize what it meant to work on a movie headlined by stars like Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston.
"It's really cool reflecting back because I was so young and so uninhibited and I didn't really know too much about celebrity and fame," he said. "Being a part of such a monumental film like 'The Bodyguard' just makes me smile because I didn't know what I was making in that process."
Since then, most of Nixon's work has been on the small screen. Before "Winning Time," he appeared in "Runaways" on Hulu and "Snowfall" on FX.
Being Norm Nixon's son did not mean DeVaughn automatically was selected to play his own father. He had to audition and actually went up against his brother, Norm Jr., for the role. There was "a little inherent competition" going on between the brothers, but they agreed early on that this part should definitely go to one of them. There were no hard feelings when DeVaughn was ultimately cast as Norm Nixon.
Playing his father put Nixon in a unique position. He knew there wasn't much he could offer to the creatives behind "Winning Time," especially executive producer Adam McKay. But there were times when he felt compelled to say, "My dad wouldn't do that."
"I did my best to please [my dad] while also pleasing the writers and producers," he said. "I had to marry those two, and that was the biggest challenge for me."
His version of Norm Nixon is dripping with bravado when "Winning Time" starts. At that point, Nixon was the Lakers' undisputed starting point guard. That would change when the team drafted immediate franchise-changer Earvin "Magic" Johnson (Quincy Isaiah). Nixon said he started off "a little over the top" in portraying his father, but his dad eventually "simmers down a little bit" as he accepts his new role.
DeVaughn feels like his father's early contributions to the Lakers sometimes get overlooked. One of the reasons he was so excited to play this part was to "let people know that he's a bad mofo." "Winning Time" establishes that quickly in the pilot as Nixon easily takes down a young Magic Johnson in a game of one-on-one.
"I felt like that scene kind of did him a little bit of justice," Nixon said. "It's a bit of a metaphor showing how great of a player he was. Obviously some things were added and some truths were stretched. But that's television."
Nixon believes "Winning Time" will win over viewers "whether you're a sports lover or not." He thinks they'll leave both dazzled by how the basketball scenes are shot and feeling like they learned a lot about an important time in NBA history.
Most importantly, he hopes the series will finally put the proper amount of respect on the name Norm Nixon.
"I feel like my dad's stock is going to rise," he said. "I feel like they're going to start bringing out his jerseys again. His cards are going to go flying off the shelf. ... I think this is going to create opportunities for both of us."
