It’s a Day of Firsts for Fowlkes

Tremaine Fowlkes made his first NBA basket on his first shot in his first game Saturday, a third-quarter put-back of a miss by Clipper teammate Quentin Richardson.

The Clippers signed Fowlkes, who had been playing for the Columbus (Ga.) Riverdragons of the National Basketball Development League, to a 10-day contract Saturday. The Clippers desperately need help at small forward because Corey Maggette has two dislocated fingers on his right hand and Lamar Odom continues to be sidelined by a sprained right wrist and ankle.

It has been a long, strange trip for Fowlkes, but he finally got into an NBA game, almost four years after the Denver Nuggets took him on the second round of the 1998 draft.

Fowlkes was a standout at Crenshaw High, the Pacific 10 freshman of the year at California and a standout scorer and rebounder after transferring to Fresno State. But it was quite a journey before he reached the NBA.

Fowlkes has played with Yakima of the now-defunct Continental Basketball Assn. and Cincinnati of the International Basketball League. He has also played in Venezuela.

“Whenever there’s a first time for anything, you have a little jitters,” Fowlkes said. “But this team makes you feel comfortable and the coaching staff helped a lot. It was an easy adjustment.”

By game’s end, Fowlkes had seven points and six rebounds in 17 minutes in a reserve role. He earned praise from Coach Alvin Gentry after the Clippers’ 106-88 loss to the Indiana Pacers.

“He’s only been with us for 12 hours and I was happy with what he did tonight,” Gentry said.

*

The Clipper game March 26 against the Kings at Sacramento has been added to TBS’ schedule and their April 4 game against the Mavericks at Dallas has been picked up by TNT.