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Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports is reporting Memphis Grizzlies guard Matt Barnes has been suspended for his offseason scuffle with New York Knicks coach Derek Fisher.

Barnes allegedly went after Fisher at his ex-wife’s house in October, and the Internet had some fun after the reports surfaced despite the immature way he handled the situation.

Barnes later blamed Fisher for running to the cops about the imbroglio.

After the news broke, the NBA started looking into the incident and it seems they’ve reached a conclusion on a punishment.

The 35-year-old Barnes is expected to miss Tuesday’s game against the Miami Heat and Saturday’s game against the Utah Jazz.

(Yahoo)

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Matt Barnes had a rough 2015, and he wanted everyone to know it on the eve of 2016. In an Instagram post for the ages, Barnes addresses multiple juicy storylines from a 2015 that saw him leave the Clippers for the Grizzlies in free agency last summer after advancing to the Western Conference Finals with them.

First, though, lets run through all the events he addresses in his lengthy IG caption.

Matt Barnes claimed he was seeing Rihanna, but she said it was a lie. He responded that he’s “too grown to lie.” That last rebuttal was funny to us because as we’ve grown older, we’ve noticed more and more liars of all ages.

He also cursed out James Harden’s mom in last season’s Western Conference Finals against the Rockets. He later apologized, but then later went after Dwight (which is OK, we guess, since everyone does these days).

He signed with the Grizzlies over the summer, but not before throwing his old coach, Doc Rivers, under the bus by saying his old coach “couldn’t wait to get rid of me.”

Then came his fight with his former coach and teammate, Derek Fisher, which was awful on a number of different fronts, the worst being the presence of his crying kids as it all went down.

That wasn’t the end of the Fisher brouhaha. Barnes later blamed Fisher for snitching to the NBA and the police about the fight. The scuffle ultimately led to a two-game suspension worth around $64,000.

So, yeah, that’s a crappy year. But how does Barnes explain it all? Well, primarily by blaming everyone else, including Rihanna for lying, Derek Fisher for dating his ex behind his back, and his old team for not wanting him.

We’ve quoted his entire caption below, sic’s and all.

Thank God For 2016!
2015 hands down was the worst year of my life! * *Lost the women I loved,the mother of my kids, my Dogg.. I had to walk away from the only thing I’ve wanted, MY OWN FAMILY! “They call that karma” *To being traded away from a team & city I love! “They call that the business” *Lied on by a pop star
Who’s lucky I stuck to the script & didn’t expose her lien ass
Funny thing about texts & pics is they DONT LIE! “I Guess” “They call that getting played” *Last BUT NOT LEAST… Being stuck in the “triangle offense” w my ex & snitch, I mean former teammate & friend.. Who went behind my back, messed w my ex, got caught, got dealt w for being a snake, then ran & told the Police & NBA.. Instead of taken that ass whoopin like a man & kept it moving….!
WHERE THEY DO THAT AT?
Guess cause I didn’t SNITCH, I get a 2 game suspension by the league “They call that LIFE”

WHEN IT RAINED, IT POURED in 15
All this played out like a bad reality show, a nightmare, for your amusement & entertainment! For you to critique, make fun of, crack jokes & laugh about.. “What I shoulda did” or what “y’all would have done” Hmmmm… I say all this not for sympathy, because I had a hand in all the bad $h!t that happened.. I was never perfect in my relationship, I didn’t see eye to eye w my head coach.. I was warned SEVERAL times about ole girl & I introduced love ones to people who I “thought were FRIENDS”… Lesson Learned!! This is for all of you who had a F@#%ed up year… To let you know I’m right there w you, We In this together! Everyone has ups & downs in this game called LIFE… It gets better…. “I think” Hahaa nah it does, trust me! — -Remember God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers!!!
-Stay positive, hold ya head, tighten your circle & stick to your instincts..
-It’s not about how many times you fall down, it’s about how many times you get up!

Heres to freeing your hands of all the bullshit of 2015 & preparing for the blessing God has in store for us all in 2016!
HAPPY NEW YEAR,
LOVE
#THEBADGUY

Happy New Year, Matt. We think 2016 will go a lot better if you stop blaming others for your own self-made ills. Don’t attack the man your ex is consensually dating, especially not in front your own kids. That level of insecurity isn’t attractive. Don’t throw your old coach under the bus and then lament your change of scenery. Don’t curse out an opposing player’s mom. Don’t kiss and tell if the person you’re kissing is someone who wants to keep it on the down low. These are just basic life lessons from us, that you’re more than welcome to ignore.

But our 2015 wasn’t bad, so maybe we know something.

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Matt Barnes has spent a lifetime filing grievances, but on this particular day, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) filed a grievance on Barnes’ behalf to rescind his two game suspension for his altercation with Derek Fisher. Barnes recently expressed his opinions on the events of that October evening and how they affected his life.

It was an unfortunate altercation that has now cost Barnes two game checks. Barnes has been through the appeals process numerous times in his career, so he knows better than to expect to get his money back.

“I appreciate the support I’ve got from not only my peers throughout the NBA but NFL & from the entertainment world,” Barnes told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. “It means a lot that the NBAPA has filed an appeal on my behalf, but I won’t hold my breath. I’ve never had so much as a tech rescinded, I highly doubt I’ll be reimbursed a dime of that suspension money!”

Barnes’ grievance would only be for financial restitution since he already served his two game suspension. The NBPA, headed by Michele Roberts, does a great job fighting for all its players, but this will be a hard battle to win. Barnes’ altercation with Fisher was well documented and the NBA has officially closed their investigation; the New York Knicks’ coach was not disciplined.

Barnes’ case is a long shot, but closed mouths don’t get fed.

(ESPN)

USA TODAY Sports

Don’t expect warm words and tight embraces when Matt Barnes and Derek Fisher cross paths on Saturday night. In fact, don’t expect any words at all, at least from Barnes.

You probably remember one of the most bizarre stories from the NBA offseason when Barnes drove to Derek Fisher’s house to confront the Knicks coach about dating his ex-wife. The two reportedly got in a tussle, and the NBA recently issued a two-game suspension to Barnes as a result. On Saturday, the Knicks play the Grizzlies, which means Fisher and Barnes will be in the same vicinity for the first time since the suspension. According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, Barnes wants nothing to do with Fisher – at least for now.

But the Grizzlies forward pledged to avoid his enemy during their match up Saturday, if only because he fears the Knicks coach will, to steal Barnes’ buzz word Thursday, “snitch.”

“I don’t talk to snakes,” Barnes told the Daily News.

[…]

“I know I got to keep my mouth shut because then he’ll run and tell,” Barnes said. “So we’re focused on playing that team (the Knicks). And when I’m retired, him and I will cross paths again.”

That doesn’t sound ominous or threatening at all! At least for now, though, both teams (and the league) can rest easy knowing that there won’t be anymore drama between Fisher and Barnes.

(New York Daily News)

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Matt Barnes quite simply refuses to let this whole Derek Fisher saga just die already. He’s already earned a two-game suspension for the vague, physical altercation that ensued between the two last summer over Fisher’s amorphous relationship status with Barnes’ ex-wife. But while the rest of the NBA world has gladly opted to forget about all that nonsense, Barnes and his fragile machismo certainly haven’t.

So when he was once again asked about it prior to the Grizzlies’ home game against the visiting Knicks Saturday night, rather than squash the beef once and for all, Barnes instead decided to brazenly threaten Fisher, saying that the two will “cross paths again” after he retires. It didn’t take long for the league to act, and on Sunday they issued Barnes a $35,000 fine. Here’s more from the official press release, via NBA.com:

Memphis Grizzlies forward Matt Barnes has been fined $35,000 for inappropriate public comments that are detrimental to the best interests of the NBA, it was announced today by Kiki VanDeWeghe, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.

“Matt Barnes’ comments condoning violence do not reflect who we are as a league or the character of our players,” said VanDeWeghe. “His words are unacceptable and entirely inconsistent with the core principles of this game and the NBA.”

It’s probably too much to hope for that we’ve heard the last of this, especially considering the other bafflingly contradictory statement he gave to that same reporter:

On the one had, the rhetorical agility required for those types of verbal gymnastics is impressive. After he retires, he might consider trading in his brass knuckles for a career in law or politics.

(Via NBA.com)

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The infamous October incident between Matt Barnes and Derek Fisher has hovered over Fisher’s head all season. It was a stain deeply imprinted on Fisher’s reputation around the league, and some opined it was the biggest reason behind his in-season termination. The former Knicks coach never fully addressed the incidents of the night in question with Barnes, hoping to keep the issue a private matter. However, now that he is no longer a coach, Fisher touched on the subject in a personal essay written for Sports Illustrated.

I don’t know what was going through Matt’s mind that day in October when he showed up unannounced at Gloria’s house, and started swinging. I didn’t retaliate. No one who was there did anything but try to get him to calm down, particularly because Matt and Gloria’s children were present. There was no fight.

Fisher also touched on his relationship, or lack thereof,  with Barnes during his time with the Lakers. He claimed they had no relationship off the court and that he had nothing to hide from Barnes about his relationship with Barnes’ ex-wife Gloria Govan. Perhaps Fisher’s most poignant point was in reference to the treatment that Govan was subjected to:

First, I was stunned and disappointed by the way Gloria was treated in the media. After the much publicized (and unfortunate) situation went down in Los Angeles last year, story after story was published that portrayed her as a piece of property, instead of the strong, independent woman and mother she is; someone who is capable of making her own decisions. This is a human being we are talking about, not some pawn in a game.

The Fisher-Barnes incident, while entertaining on its surface, has revealed itself to be no laughing matter. Hopefully, Fisher’s earnest essay will be the conclusion to this unfortunate story.

(SI)

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One of the better parts of the Kobe Bryant farewell tour is the Los Angeles Times reaching out to former players to get stories about playing with him. Sure, watching Bryant hug players and saunter to the locker room after losses is wonderful, but the anecdotes are better.

Matt Barnes was Bryant’s teammate for two seasons and was able to witness his dedication to detail first-hand.

“When I first signed to the Lakers we went overseas and he was over there and he was drawing on a piece of paper and I didn’t know what he was doing,” said Barnes, who played two seasons with the Lakers.

“Something was going on. He was moving up and down and grabbing his face and I went over there and he probably had about 40 different little mini courts drawn on this paper. He was figuring out when teams double and triple team him, where his teammates were going to be open.

“That was kind of one of my first times seeing how deep he is and how involved he is with the game.”

This story paints Bryant as some sort of tortured artist, but don’t the Lakers have a coach? Or someone who shows video of games? He was just sitting alone drawing basketball courts? Is this one of those stories that conveys either madness or genius, depending on the perspective?

The Lakers are 14-52 this season, the second-worst record in the NBA.

(Los Angeles Times)

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It’s no surprise to see Matt Barnes involved in an on-court mix up – it’s kind of his thing. But after a Flagrant 1 foul was called on John Henson in the 4th quarter of the Bucks game against the Grizzlies, Barnes seemed to take even more exception than usual.

According to Milwaukee announcer Gus Johnson, Barnes warned several times that he’d meet Bucks players in the locker room and he just might have kept his promise. In the final seconds of the game, Henson swatted a Barnes shot attempt into the stands and gave him a stare down complete with a hilarious game face. Barnes was obviously not amused, and after both players were subsequently ejected he sprinted toward the Bucks locker room just as he promised.

Word is he actually did make it into the locker room, and on-site reporters noticed a large scrape on Henson’s face that wasn’t visible during the game.

The Bucks big man didn’t exactly deny a locker room altercation with Barnes during a chat with media members, either.

Only Barnes, Henson, and team personnel know what really happened here. Considering Barnes’ penchant for fighting and more empirical evidence, though, it seems speculation of a post-game fracas might actually be accurate.

Crazy.

(H/T Deadspin)

Now Watch: Gregg Popovich And Tim Duncan Couldn’t Stop Laughing As A Mavs Rookie Taunted The Spurs

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Matt Barnes isn’t exactly the league’s bastion of friendship, togetherness, and overall camaraderie. The Memphis Grizzlies forward’s reputation as one of basketball’s premier antagonists was well earned even before this season, when he’s had highly-publicized and utterly indefensible run ins with New York Knicks coach Derek Fisher and Milwaukee Bucks big man John Henson.

But players rarely interact with teammates the way they do foes, and Barnes is a living example of that reality. He’s beloved by hometown locker rooms and fans alike despite his nasty penchant for making the wrong type of headlines with physical play on the court and pointed words off it.

DeAndre Jordan, for instance, is a player who fully appreciated being teammates with Barnes. Why? Believe it or not, Barnes apparently acted as a calming influence on the Los Angeles Clippers big man.

Jordan is fifth in the league with 10 technical fouls – as much as he’s registered as any other year in his career. Barnes’ eight technical fouls, by the way, rank eighth.

Though the 36 year old is now employed by one of their longtime rivals, the Clippers clearly still love him. Ahead of Los Angeles playing in Memphis on Saturday night, Barnes had some typically jocular interactions with his former teammates.

Basketball, remember, is a brotherhood. And for Jordan, having Barnes in his hoops immediate family apparently meant fewer technical fouls – and more money as a result.

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I suppose we can see this as Matt Barnes‘ proverbial ride off into the sunset. Much-maligned throughout his career for his prickly demeanor and an insatiable penchant for both instigating and promulgating beefs well beyond their natural shelf-life, Barnes made himself a pariah around the NBA for much of his career, while simultaneously endearing himself to his teammates and his team’s fan base.

And after a 14-year career that finally culminated in an NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors last season, Barnes has apparently reconciled himself to the fact that it’s time to tackle life beyond basketball. On Monday, he announced his retirement from the NBA via an Instagram post.

In typical Barnes fashion, it ran the gambit from expressing appreciating to the game and the fans who have supported him over the years, to an intractable need to lob a few final verbal hand-grenades at anyone who doubted him or criticized him over the years.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcky1INBXbw/?taken-by=dimemagazine

We wouldn’t have expected anything else. We wish Barnes the best of luck in all his future endeavors. We can only hope that retirement doesn’t offer him so much free time that he gets bored and decides to reignite his long-standing beef with Derek Fisher.

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The McDonald’s All-America team was announced on Tuesday and one very prominent high schooler was missing from the list of names. Shareef O’Neal, the son of Shaq and a four-star Arizona commit, did not make the team. Normally, a snub for a high school All-America game wouldn’t garner much backlash, but when it’s the son of an NBA legend it makes national news.

Shaq, naturally, posted to social media noting his displeasure with his son not being on the team and other current and former NBA players, including LeBron James, also sent messages of support to O’Neal as well as messages condemning the McDonald’s All-American Game.

The backlash from those upset about O’Neal’s snub has led to some positing that they should form their own All-American Game, but the best reaction has come from Matt Barnes, who is taking out his anger on McDonald’s (and, in turn, his twin boys). Barnes posted a message to Instagram saying that he’s going to no longer allow his boys to eat McDonald’s chicken McNuggets due to O’Neal’s absence from the All-American roster.

The #NoMoreNuggets really sends the message home and I hope more than anything that it trends. Barnes’ heart might be in the right place here, but I think this might be some misguided anger. I’m not sure a McNugget boycott is going to have a big impact on the inner workings and voting process of the high school All-America team as much as it will maybe bum out your local McDonald’s and, most of all, your kids.

Also, does this mean he’ll let his kids eat other McDonald’s items since he specifically notes the 6-piece McNuggets and he’s just sending a message with the nuggets, or do his kids only eat nuggets so boycotting those means boycotting McDonald’s. In any case, the sentiment is that he, like so many others, is mad and wants to do anything he can to make sure those running the game know that.

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The Los Angeles Clippers are seemingly going in a different direction and, for all intents and purposes, the focus appears to be on the future at the potential expense of the present. Monday’s trade to send Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons was, of course, the first domino and word spread almost immediately that the team’s front office wasn’t quite done dealing veterans for future assets.

As the entire NBA world (including Griffin himself) was still dissecting the blockbuster trade that seemingly emerged from nowhere, former Clippers forward Matt Barnes weighed in on what transpired. While his reaction concerning Griffin’s ouster was not wholly unique in that many in the industry lamented Los Angeles for signing the All-Star forward to a five-year deal and moving him months later, Barnes dropped an interesting nugget when it comes to head coach Doc Rivers.

In short, he termed Rivers to be “the problem” with everything happening in Clipper-land.

Barnes is not exactly known for his mild manner but, in placing the focus on Rivers, he certainly brings up a lot of interesting points. For starters, Rivers is no longer the leader of the Los Angeles front office and, by proxy, is not directly responsible for the trade. Beyond that, the veteran head coach was dealt a very interesting hand before this season, with Chris Paul fleeing for Houston (admittedly for a relatively strong return) and injury issues for both Danilo Gallinari and Patrick Beverley.

At the end of the day, though, it is definitely news when a former player lobs this kind of shot across the bow at a prominent head coach and that is exactly what Matt Barnes did to Doc Rivers on Monday evening.