On his Twitter feed tonight, Matt Barnes excoriated the NBA’s decision to send Shabazz Muhammad home from the Rookie Transition Program for having a woman in his room. Barnes was unabashed in his belief that there are bigger issues the NBA needs to worry about than a rookie having a woman in his room.
The rookie Muhammad played one season at UCLA before declaring for the 2013 draft. He faced some criticism for his off-court decision making, and some believe his draft stock fell as a result. Many media outlets compared Muhammad’s dismissal from the Rookie Transition Program (RTP) late Tuesday night to the drug-related incident at the 2008 RTP involving Mario Chalmers, Dorrell Wright and Michael Beasley.
In the earlier incident where rookies were asked to leave, ‘Rio, Wright and Beasley were all smoking cannabis in a room with multiple women. In Muhammad’s case, he simply had a women in his room after he was told he could not have unannounced guests by the program administrators. The Clippers wingman, Barnes, is a former UCLA Bruin as well, and he did not care for the way the media has handled Muhammad’s dismissal.
Barnes doesn’t think the NBA has any right to dismiss a player for having a woman in his room.
I think @phenom15balla gettn kicked out of #NBARTP is BS. He's a grown A$$ man, if he wants to hv a woman n his rm that's his business(cont)
— Matt Barnes (@Matt_Barnes22) August 8, 2013
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Then the media gets ahold of the story & blows it outa proportion, like they always do. Now his gotta bad wrap b4 he's ever played a(cont)
— Matt Barnes (@Matt_Barnes22) August 8, 2013
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Game.. Starting behind the 8 ball already! I guess I'm tryn to say there are bigger issues to deal with, then whether or not a grown(cont)
— Matt Barnes (@Matt_Barnes22) August 8, 2013
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Man has a woman In his room.. @phenom15balla keep ur head up boy & keep working hard, this will blow over
— Matt Barnes (@Matt_Barnes22) August 8, 2013
While the NBA’s rule about hotel room guests during the RTP seems anachronistic and more than a little insulting to the players involved it’s still a rule. While it’s unfortunate they kicked him out, Muhammad did not abide by that rule and so he was asked to leave.
Any parallels with the Beasley, Chalmers and Wright situation are merely coincidental and should be totally discounted. Shabazz wasn’t smoking herb, he just had some female company. Now he’ll pay a fine and go to next season’s RTP where he’ll hopefully announce any more “guests” through the proper channels. Or maybe Muhammad will read Dostoyevsky’s Notes From The Underground alone in his room and call it an early night for the week.
Do you think about Barnes’ comments and Muhammad’s dismissal?
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