Suns’ Rogers: Leave Closs Alone

Keith Closs has a defender.

Honest.

The Clipper center, who has been on the suspended list since early October for failure to get into basketball-playing shape, has been much maligned during his three years with the team.

And deservedly so.

The 7-3, 212-pounder has averaged 3.9 points and 2.9 rebounds, once disappeared from the team for several days for personal reasons and was involved in a fight last season at a local club.

With all that, however, Phoenix Sun forward Rodney Rogers thinks it’s the Clippers who haven’t been acting fairly in this case.

“They could have been doing this every year, taking his money,” Rogers said. “[Closs] probably doesn’t even weigh 160 pounds soaking wet, and they are trying to do something like that. I know there’s something fishy about it.

“He’s not the most physical guy, but he played hard. Yet the Clippers do things of that nature, sneak in the back door and get some money back. When they sign a guy, they tell him, we’ll do this and we’ll do that. Then, the guy works hard, but they don’t care a hell of a lot about the players. They only care about what they can get back.”

Rogers thinks the Clippers should back off Closs.

“They want to control him off the court too,” Rogers said. “He’s a grown man who has got to learn to take care of himself.”

Be aware, Rogers is hardly an impartial observer in all this. He spent four seasons with the Clippers and was suspended himself by the Clippers for part of the 1998-99 lockout-shortened season because of a weight problem. Rogers was fined $914,024 because, according to the Clippers, he was never less than 40 pounds over an agreed-upon weight.

Earlier this month, Rogers was given back $716,464 of that amount in an arbitration ruling.

Rogers calls the whole incident “stupidity.”

Asked if he thinks the Clipper fortunes will ever turn around, Rogers said, “I’ll let [owner Donald] Sterling worry about that.”

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Phoenix guard Penny Hardaway underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Saturday in a Phoenix hospital to repair frayed cartilage.

Hardaway, who has been on the injured list since Oct. 30, is expected to be out another three to four more weeks.

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The Clippers close out their homestand with games Monday against the Lakers and Wednesday against the Golden State Warriors. They then embark on a six-game road trip, their second longest of the season.