Team, Roberts Disagree on Last Season

Before being suspended by the Clippers, center Stanley Roberts complained that the team forced him to play with bone spurs.

“It’s kind of funny; it seems ironic how last year they wouldn’t let me practice and this year all of a sudden they let me practice,” Roberts said Monday. “I weigh just about the same. Last year I came to camp with the foot problem, and they didn’t find out what it was until the end of the season, so all season I had to play with bone spurs. I thought bone spurs were easy to detect with X-rays, but they couldn’t figure out what it was. But I’m supposed to be happy that I’m here.”

Coach Bill Fitch said he didn’t force Roberts, who sat out 31 games last season, to play hurt, adding: “They told him all last year that he had spurs, but that if he could stand [the pain] to play with it and to change his shoes, and now he says we wanted him to play in pain,” Fitch said.

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Does Roberts’ suspension make signing free agent Brian Williams a higher priority for the Clippers?

“No, it doesn’t,” Fitch said. “The importance of Brian is still there. From what I understand what has been offered [$12 million for three years] is more than he can get somewhere else. I’ll just stay out of it.”