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Matt Barnes‘ NBA journey has been full of ups and downs. Most recently though, the downs have been more prominent for the Kings forward who is now in his second stint with Sacramento.
Barnes told his former L.A. Clippers teammate J.J. Redick on The Vertical podcast that one of his biggest mistakes was joining the cast of the reality TV show Basketball Wives that airs on VH1.
The show featured him and his now-estranged wife Gloria Govan, who was dating Barnes' former Lakers teammate Derek Fisher.
“I think the biggest mistake I ever made was doing that stupid ‘Basketball Wives' show,” Barnes told Redick. “Then to go through a public divorce with a basketball wife, and then what happened last summer, with my ex hooking up with my teammate.”
The 6-foot-7 forward made his ire known through social media with a blend of colorful language and personal threats toward Fisher, even mocking him once he was fired as coach of the New York Knicks.
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“I'm always going to be me,” Barnes said. “Whether I'm in the NBA, a police officer, a doctor, a drug dealer, whatever… I'm gonna be me. So when stuff happens I'm going to be speak on it, and if it really pushes my buttons I'm gonna react on it. I may fly off the hook in certain situations like I did last summer, which I think was justified, and I think, you know, 90 percent of the men in the world feel me.”
Barnes also talked about his feud with Maurice Cheeks, who coached him on the Philadelphia 76ers in 2005-06. Barnes once told Sports Illustrated in 2015 that the two came close to fighting each other at a practice and that his then-teammate Chris Webber had to separate them.
“He was just a dick,” Barnes said of Cheeks. “I really didn't like him. I still to this day, like, I'll slap him in his face if he ever said anything to me.”
The 36-year-old saw his worst shooting year from the field with Memphis last season, making a mere 38.1 percent of his field goals — but a late scoring surge at the end of the season bumped his scoring average to 10 a game.
At this point in his career, his scoring and three-point ability is capped by his minutes and the way he'll earn them is by playing the signature defense that has earned him a spot in NBA rosters for the past 13 years.
