Matt Barnes a**hole (SI.com article)

interesting quotes

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He spent nights at friends’ houses then, eventually, holidays and vacations. He saw a potential future. “Once I saw how these white people were living, all eating dinner together and taking family vacations and they were just a family, I was like, ‘S---, I want that.’”

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“The reason people don’t want to go to the Lakers is because of management,” Barnes says. “Kobe can be the scapegoat all they want but if you play hard, Kobe likes you. And if you bulls--- around, he doesn’t. It’s plain and simple. He’s not a vocal leader. He just expects you to play as hard as you can every minute on the court, like he does.”

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Among those, Barnes says he fears none, but there are some he’s preferred to avoid over the years. Like Ron Artest. “Ron’s dope, but he had a scary side,” says Barnes of his former Lakers teammate. “Like if I had to fight him, it might not end. Because we might just keep fighting.”

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on Serge Ibaka

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“He just thinks he’s the toughest guy on earth and I don’t see it,” Barnes says.

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“J.J. Redick kind of changed my whole perspective on judging people, because I’m judged so much,” says Barnes. “Before I played with him, I was like, ‘I f---ing hate that guy!’ He never did anything to me, but to see him at Duke and the way he acted, I was like, ‘I do not like that guy.’” Then Barnes played with Redick, and realized he was the unlikeliest of dogs. “He’s tough, and if you play dirty, he’ll play dirty

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"He's an a-hole, but he's our a-hole"

I just traded for him in my 2k franchise because of this article

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Classic hate-him-unless-he's-on-your-team type of guy.

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Yup. Someone should start a thread on this

That was a good read.

I also read that embedded link to the mookie blaylock story. Pretty good read too. I assume it was posted here since it was a month old but I hadn't seen it.

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on Serge Ibaka

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“He just thinks he’s the toughest guy on earth and I don’t see it,” Barnes says.

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2nd time this week I've seen somebody randomly call out Ibaka for being a fake tough guy. Pretty sure the other was SJax on the Grantland Basketball Hour. Interesting.

I used to hate Barnes, but I've really come to appreciate him. Every team needs a guy who's gonna work hard on D, knock down open 3s, give a timely hard foul, and always has his teammates' back.

I've never seen serge try and be a tough guy. The dude barely even speaks English. It's not like he is a big trash talker either

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“He just thinks he’s the toughest guy on earth and I don’t see it,” Barnes says.

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Interesting. Stephen Jackson also mentioned this about Serge Ibaka when asked by BS on Grantland Basketball Hour, "the one player who genuinely dislike". Seemed out of left field, but now with another, maybe he has that fake tough guy reputation?