Fisher Feels at Home on Road

Derek Fisher was going to be an accountant. He was going to grow old in Little Rock, Ark., among people he knew. He was going to eat Southern food in their restaurant on Saturday night and pray in their church on Sunday morning and maybe play some basketball on their playground on Sunday afternoon.

Then, he was going to spend the next five days as an accountant, doing their taxes or their books or whatever.

“Nothing too fancy,” Fisher said Thursday afternoon with a smile.

After six NBA seasons and three championship rings, Fisher returns to Little Rock for an exhibition game tonight.

He played at Parkview High and Arkansas Little Rock. He worked at an accounting firm on the north side of town for much of two years. His family and friends and acquaintances will help fill Alltel Arena for the game against the Memphis Grizzlies, the team from across the river.

There will be the usual uproar over the Lakers and their traveling party of superstars, and for the local Grizzlies, but some of it will be for Derek Fisher, the quiet guard from up the street.

“It’ll be a surreal experience,” he said. “To think where I was then, leaving school....”

Fisher shook his head and grinned. It is where he learned the game, where he learned values that make him so charitable in the community, and particularly with children. He guessed that as many as 10,000 of the 17,000 in the building would have at least a loose connection with him, from his mother to his aunt to his English teacher to his high school coach.

“It’s a preseason game,” he said. “But there will be some extra emotion in it for me.”

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The Lakers have decided not to play exhibition games in Japan next fall, though they probably will return to Hawaii for training camp.... Mark Madsen has a strained left hamstring and probably will not play this weekend.... Rick Fox (strained lower back) also is questionable.... Tracy Murray (sore right hip) practiced Thursday after sitting out Wednesday.... Shaquille O’Neal is on the three-day trip through Little Rock and Oklahoma City.

Tim Brown

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The Clippers dressed only 10 players for their exhibition at Portland, Ore., on Thursday night, and the Trail Blazers routed them, 99-75.

Center Michael Olowokandi, power forward Elton Brand and guard Quentin Richardson were among those who couldn’t play because of various injuries.

The Clippers, who play the Seattle SuperSonics tonight at Staples Center, were led by Corey Maggette’s 17 points and seven rebounds.

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This could be the season Eric Piatkowski finally loses his starting spot as the Clippers’ shooting guard. This could be the season Piatkowski, at long last, is sent to the bench by younger, more talented, more promising players.

But don’t bet on it.

Piatkowski said he is having the best training camp of his nine NBA seasons--all with the Clippers. He said he loves playing with point guard Andre Miller, acquired during the off-season in a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

If his 14-point performance--on five-of-eight shooting--in 28 minutes in the Clippers’ exhibition victory Tuesday over the Lakers is any indication, Piatkowski might just hang onto his starting position. Richardson, nursing a sprained right knee, might remain in his role as the Clippers’ first substitute.

“I want Pike to shoot every open shot he has,” Coach Alvin Gentry said. “We’re not sticking him out there to lead the team in assists.”

With Miller delivering the ball with pinpoint accuracy, Piatkowski has been getting plenty of open shots--more than previously, he said.

“I just know that, when I compare this training camp to the last one, I’m getting a ton of wide open looks,” said Piatkowski, who set a team record by making 111 of 238 three-point shots (46.6%) last season. “I’m getting guarded by the same guys as last year. I’m finding a spot and [Miller and backup Marko Jaric] are getting me the ball.”

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China has dropped center Wang Zhizhi from its national basketball team because he wants to play in the NBA, rather than in the Asian Games.

Wang, who played last season for Dallas but signed an offer sheet with the Clippers last week, has shown an “absence of professional standards, indiscipline and indifference to the interests of the nation,” according to a statement by the China Basketball Assn.

The Clippers, in the midst of a 15-day period during which Wang can re-sign with the Mavericks, had no comment.

Elliott Teaford

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Denver Nugget center Marcus Camby, who sat out his final 38 games with the New York Knicks last season because of a torn muscle in his hip, underwent surgery on the same joint and be out indefinitely. ... The Washington Wizards are considering signing forward Charles Oakley. ... The NBA players union filed a grievance over the record $250,000 fine the Knicks gave Latrell Sprewell for failing to promptly tell the team about his hand injury. It will probably be at least two months before the grievance arbitrator makes a decision.