It’s hard not to love Matt Barnes if you’re an NBA blogger, and it’s also pretty easy to hate him. But he’s had his requisite moment lambasting Dwight Howard, and he’s gone over the line with a peer’s parent; Barnes’ sh*t-eating grin in games always makes us laugh, and he’s also had repeated issues going over the line on Twitter. He’s good copy, basically, and he didn’t disappoint in yesterday’s SportsNation appearance.
When asked about Thunder power forward Serge Ibaka, who he’s had a run-in with before, Barnes said, “Me and Serge can fight right now. I just don’t like him.” He said this before adding that Serge is basically a fake tough guy.
https://twitter.com/SportsNation/status/623599760193265668
Serge took the comments in stride with this laughing response tweet.
@danawhite @ufc are you interested? LOL https://t.co/tgXNbDxBPq
— Serge Ibaka (@sergeibaka) July 21, 2015
When it’s late July and most of the big-name free agents have been scooped up, this is what we’re left with: A new Memphis Grizzlies role player challenging the Oklahoma City Thunder’s defensive force in the middle to a fight.
For the record, Barnes’ hardscrabble upbringing makes him uniquely suited for these sorts of boasts, and he did smartly add during his Ibaka harangue that the NBA would come down hard on him if he threw the first punch. We do know, though, that Ibaka is 6-foot-10 and 245 pounds, and Barnes is 6-foot-7 and 225. Actually, imagining a rumble between these two is what we’ve been reduced to in July. We’re due a break next month, but this story already has us wishing for the start of the 2015-16 season.