Matt Barnes didn’t score any points tonight, both in the basketball game between the Clippers and the Oklahoma City Thunder, or with his teammates. After getting into the usual faux bravado shoving match with Serge Ibaka after Ibaka had become entangled with Blake Griffin, Barnes was ejected. But it was what Barnes did after the ejection that was the big story.
Here’s the brouhaha between Barnes and Ibaka that happened right before the end of the first half. Both players were ejected — Blake got off with a tech — but only Ibaka’s absence truly mattered on the court.
Barnes, banished from the court, decides to grab his son from the stands and head to the locker-room, progeny looking befuddled while clasping his sweaty hand.
If I'm Matt Barnes' son, I'm pretty pissed right about now. This is a good game.
— netw3rk (@netw3rk) November 14, 2013
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With Ibaka out in the second half, the Clippers overcame a 9-point halftime Thunder lead, outscoring them 30-16 in the third quarter on their way to a 111-103 victory. The loss of Ibaka protecting the rim opened the floodgates for the Clips, and the Thunder couldn’t recover.
But Matt Barnes’ ejection was not the end of his night, at least not on Twitter. He sent out a missive in the form of a tweet that was quickly deleted before the game ended, but which USA Today‘s Sean Highkin kindly snapped:
As many have pointed out on Twitter already, the tweet is probably gonna cost Barnes even more than his role in the ejection.
If I’m a contemporary NBA player with a Twitter account, I hand my phone to a friend I can trust, and tell him or her not to give it back to me until I’ve cooled down from the game. If a player doesn’t have someone they can trust, they should delete their Twitter account (no don’t!).
Also, so many people saw the tweet live and smartly captured it for posterity, Barnes’ teammates are gonna see it at some point. Maybe they have already. It’s lucky for Barnes the Clippers won the game, and Ibaka’s ejection was a large reason why. Maybe his teammates can all pitch in some cash to help Barnes pay the fine — that is almost certainly coming down tomorrow. That is, they might be willing to until they see a screenshot of that tweet.
Tough night for Mr. Barnes.
[screenshot via FTW; gif via @MikePradaSBN]
What do you think of Barnes’ tweet?
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