Rookie has become a Paul Pierce protege

The 19-year-old Clippers rookie and the 38-year-old veteran have developed a bond during training camp, and it’s all based on the sage Paul Pierce’s willingness to work with newbie Diamond Stone.

At some practices attended by the media, it’s been common to see Pierce showing Stone proper footwork.

Pierce has been in the NBA for almost two decades, winning a championship in Boston in 2008.

“It means a lot because it’s Paul Pierce,” Stone said. “Working with a guy with 26,000 points and learning every little detail about footwork and shot fakes and everything, it helps my game.”

Stone didn’t play in the Clippers’ 96-94 exhibition loss to the Utah Jazz on Monday night at Staples Center. He watched Marreese Speights (14 points), Chris Paul (14) and Jamal Crawford (16) provide most of the offense.

Through two weeks of training camp, Stone already has learned a lot from Pierce.

“It’s amazing, just because he can get any shot he wants and you know what shot he’s going to take, but you still can’t stop it,” Stone said of their one-on-one sessions. “I just try to contest it the best I can.”

Pierce won’t call Stone by his name.

“Diamond is a stripper name,” Pierce said, laughing. “His name is Rookie.”

Pierce said he’s just trying to share wisdom with Stone.

“I’m just trying to pass something to him. That’s all. Just give something to the younger generation,” Pierce said. “That’s why I’ve been out there working with him pretty much every morning, lifting, just teaching him what it’s going to take.”

Clippers dispute Trump’s remarks

The Clippers took exception to GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s characterizing his lewd comments about women in a tape from 2005 that surfaced Friday as just “locker room talk.”

Crawford, who watched Sunday night’s debate between Hillary Clinton and Trump, went on his Twitter account to express his dismay with Trump’s explanation. “Locker room?” Crawford tweeted Sunday night.

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said the locker room talk Trump talked about is “not in a locker room I’ve been in.”

“I don’t like them,” Rivers said of Trump’s remarks. “They’re bad comments. They’re demeaning to women. I have a daughter. I think when people throw out that word ‘locker room talk,’ there’s nobody like that talking in the locker room.”

Rivers said athletes swear in the locker room, but there’s “nobody demeaning” people.

“There’re players in our locker room with sisters, wives and daughters,” he said. “There’s not that type of talk in anyone’s locker room. That bothered me when I heard it. But what bothered me more was the original tape. I didn’t need the other thing to bother me. It’s what we’re in right now. We’re talking about that instead of policy and education. To me, that’s the biggest crime right now.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner