Retired small forward and team 'enforcer' Matt Barnes has had the privilege of watching many in the NBA adopt his confrontational aura on the court in the months since he retired from the game, and he definitely isn't mad about it. TMZ caught up with the former basketball journeyman to get his thoughts on the spike in ejections over physical altercations thus far this season, and to nobody's surprise, he says he's kind of cool with ballers getting rough every once in a while.
"I love it man. I think its good. As long as it doesn't really turn into violence. You know, we want to save the image of the NBA, but I think its good to have some competitive spirit out there," Barnes told a reporter for the celebrity news outlet on Tuesday night, January 16.
Prior to TMZ getting up with Barnes, things got heated in Orlando, when deep into the second quarter Aaron Afflalo threw a haymaker that just barely missed clocking Nemanja Bjelica in the face. Come morning time fights in the NBA were all the buzz on Fox News and ESPN, with both Chris Carter and Stephen A. Smith touching on the matter during their respective shows.
In the four months since the 2017-18 season tipped off, there has been a bevy of heated exchanges - some of which have resulted in hands being thrown. Among the more notable rifts involved the likes of Bobby Portis and Nikola Mirotic, Kevin Durant and Boogie Cousins, Serge Ibaka and James Johnson, Bradley Beal and Draymond Green, Goran Dragic and DeMar DeRozan, Lebron James and Enes Kanter, and teamwide standoffs between the Suns and the Lakers, and more recently, the L.A. Clippers and the Houston Rockets.
