Leak About Benching Riles Fitch

Coach Bill Fitch, angry after a player revealed that Fitch had removed forward Rodney Rogers from the starting lineup Sunday at Milwaukee after Fitch got into a dispute with Rogers at practice last Saturday, called a team meeting after practice Monday in a futile attempt to uncover the leak.

Fitch blew up when a reporter asked him about the meeting, ordering him to turn off his tape recorder.

“If you want to print lies you print them,” Fitch snapped as he stormed away.

The incident reportedly happened when Rogers walked off the court after Fitch began cursing at him for a bad pass.

Rogers, who started the Clippers’ first 50 games before he was benched, questioned a reporter on the identity of the player who leaked the story.

“You ask Coach, you don’t ask nobody else,” Rogers said. “If he doesn’t want to put me in the lineup, that’s on him.”

*

76er Coach Johnny Davis, a former Clipper assistant, says Fitch is doing a good job this season.

“I think he’s done an excellent job,” Davis said. “Bill Fitch has been around a long time. That kind of longevity says that you know what you’re doing.

“He’s seen a lot of players come and go. I don’t think there’s too much that surprises him at this point.”