Matt Barnes can’t help but speak his mind. Unfortunately for him, that leads to a lot of fines coming down from the League.
Most recently Barnes got into it with James Harden’s mother mid-game. Barnes claims he didn’t know that it was Harden’s mom, and that she had started the trash talk first, to which he responded with a “S*** My D***!”.
Not a good look, in any case.
The Clippers forward has since personally apologized to Harden’s mother, and has been fined 50k for his role in the altercation.
The fine is what’s bothering Barnes now, though, and he raises a valid point.
“I gotta watch my mouth but, for someone to get ($25,000) for physically putting their hands on someone and then someone else to get ($50,000) for verbally saying something, there’s a problem with that,” Barnes said to ESPN producer Shari Greenberg after the Clippers’ 124-99 win in Game 3 on Friday.
Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls just pushed a fan in Cleveland and received exactly half of the fine that Barnes did for using words. Something doesn’t add up here.
Sure, Barnes has had a history of fines and suspensions from the League and that may come into play here – but it’s not like Noah has had a perfect past. Plus, Barnes at least took the time to squash the beef with Harden’s family.
But I guess sometimes life isn’t fair and you have to pay deeply for past transgressions. If Matt Barnes manages to keep his cool in future situations he won’t have any fines to complain about.