Hockey has the less conventional Gordie Howe hat trick (a goal, an assist and a fight). Basketball, make way for the Matt Barnes 3-pointer: an on-court fight, a teammate-bashing in-game tweet and a senseless use of a racial epithet.
Barnes, the feisty Clippers small forward, was ejected from Wednesday night’s 111-103 victory over the Thunder in Los Angeles after he intervened in a second-quarter scuffle between teammate Blake Griffin and Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka. Then, to the smartphone!
During the third quarter, while play resumed on the floor, Barnes tweeted, “I love my teammates like family, but I’m DONE standing up for these n—as! All this s— does is cost me money. …” The tweet was later deleted, and Barnes left the locker room before the media was allowed in following the game.
The Clippers seemed to take Barnes’ inflammatory critique in stride and called him a good teammate. Coach Doc Rivers objected to his use of the derogatory term.
“I think he was very emotional,” Rivers said. “I get that part, but the choice of words, obviously, that’s not a word I’m a fan of in all venues.”
The fireworks began when Griffin was trying to put the ball up and his arms and Ibaka’s became entangled. Barnes shoved Ibaka hard in the chest. Griffin kept trying to get at Ibaka as players from both teams formed a scrum. Ibaka cocked his right fist, but didn’t take a swing as Barnes smiled at him.
“He’s a really tough guy and sometimes he wants that (from) everybody,” Jared Dudley said of Barnes. “It goes both ways. We’ve got to be a little bit tougher and he’s got to be a little bit smarter.”
With AP