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Doc Rivers says meeting with Lamar Odom went well

Doc Rivers said his meeting with former Clipper Lamar Odom at the team's practice facility Friday went well and that the team is interested in the forward but that no deal was imminent.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said the meeting he had with free agent Lamar Odom at the team’s practice facility Friday went well and that the organization is interested in the forward.

No deal was imminent between the Clippers and Odom, but the team will continue to monitor things.

“I’ve always had interest in him,” Rivers said Saturday. “I’ve always liked him. The teams he has played on, the coaches who have coached him have always liked him… I hadn’t seen him. I just wanted to see him.”

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Odom has said the Clippers are the only team he would play for, according to NBA executives who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

“It really was I just wanted to see him physically and see how he was doing,” Rivers said. “He looked good. He looked great. He looked like his weight was way down and in good shape. But that doesn’t mean a lot.”

If the Clippers offer Odom a contract, it would be for the veteran’s minimum of about $883,000, the executives said.

Rivers, the Clippers’ vice president of basketball operations, was asked where things were left between him and Odom.

“Great seeing you,” Rivers said. “But that was it for me. Obviously I do like him. But right now it was more me just sitting down. I haven’t had a chance since I’ve taken the job [to talk to Odom]. We’ve texted each other a few times, but that was it. I just wanted to get in front of him.”

Etc.

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When the negotiations were going on between the Clippers and Boston to get Rivers to L.A., Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce said they thought they would join Rivers here.

Garnett was going to come in a trade that would have involved DeAndre Jordan, and Pierce was going to be bought out by the Celtics and signed by the Clippers.

Instead, Garnett and Pierce were traded to the Brooklyn Nets.

“At times it looked like it,” Rivers said about the three of them being with the Clippers. “And then at times it didn’t.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner

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