Doc Rivers denies rift with Clippers president of business operations

The Clippers’ president of basketball operations, Doc Rivers, and president of business operations, Gillian Zucker, are reportedly feuding.

Not true, says Rivers.

Rivers, via Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times:

“There’s nothing there,” Rivers said. “Gillian has been great. She’s new and she’s new to the NBA and of course there’s going to be criticism with that. But she’s got our backing and she’ll be fine.”

Rivers said Zucker hasn’t tried to impose things on him in their infrequent conversations.

“We do [talk] on business stuff, but very few [other] things,” Rivers said.

Rivers’ denial doesn’t exactly mean there’s no rift. People involved in these sort of things often publicly deny a problem, even when one truly exists.

If there’s no issue here and the reports were completely inaccurate, great. We can all move on.

But if there is something here, Rivers’ denial is a (probably minor) positive sign. One, it means things are at least good enough that Rivers can play nice in public. Plus, that makes it easier for Rivers and Zucker to find common ground later.

I’m still not convinced the Clippers are functioning properly, but it’s not as bad as it could be.