After starting out the junior college route with Wabash Valley College, small forward Ken Norman would become a second-team All-American with the Illinois Fighting Illini in 1987. The Clippers would use the No. 19 overall pick in the 1987 NBA Draft to draft “Snake” out of Illinois.
Norman would play 10 NBA seasons. His first six came with the team that drafted him in the Clippers. Though Norman never made an All-Star team, he would be a solid role player with the Clippers for half a dozen years from 1987 to 1993. Norman would play four more NBA seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Atlanta Hawks before retiring after the 1996-97 NBA season.
Norman would play on two Clippers teams that made trips to the Western Conference Playoffs in 1992 and 1993. In Clippers uniform, Norman would play in 439 games, starting in 311 of them. He would average 14.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in 30.9 minutes per contest.
While he would play in all 82 games with the 1993-94 Bucks, Norman would see his minutes dwindle in Atlanta once he joined the Hawks the following season. However, Norman will be best known for his role at the three on the Clippers in the late 1980s to early 1990s where he achieved career highs in points, rebounds and assists.