If you missed the news cycle yesterday, then you probably missed that Derek Fisher got beat up by Matt Barnes over the weekend, and missed a day of work because of it. It’s more odd than that though. Barnes was in California practicing with the Memphis Grizzlies, when he found out that Fish was at Barnes’ ex-wife Gloria Govan’s home and that he’s dating her. Fisher was in town to visit his kids, because his ex-wife still lives in California.
Then, in classic, hot-head Matt Barnes style, the NBA journeyman made a 95 mile drive from the Grizzlies practice facility to Gloria’s house to “beat the shit” out of Fisher. And apparently, that’s what he did.
According to reports, Fisher didn’t immediately report the incident to the NBA or the New York Knicks (where he is the coach), until he couldn’t go to work due to some injuries. Now, ESPN is reporting that Fish had no visible injuries, but other sources are saying he had some scratches. What’s weird is that just having a few scratches doesn’t prohibit a person from working.
When was the last time that someone you knew, or even the youngest school-age child you met didn’t go to school because of some scratches?
Right now, the NBA and both teams are gathering information about the incident, and Fisher hasn’t brought any charges against Barnes. That’s why it’s important for the NBA to step in when no one will.
Playing in the NBA is a privilege that only a few get to experience. These men are supposed to be role models for young people and their peers, whether they want to or not. It comes with the territory. So, Barnes, who has lost his temper before, LEFT the facility where he’s supposed to be bonding with his team to beat up a head coach? And everyone is just going to be okay with it?
Barnes is an angry bully and the league needs to step in to protect their brand and to establish a no-tolerance policy for violence.
Barnes was arrested on July 30, 2012 when he wouldn’t cooperate with the police and assaulted an officer. Fine, we don’t have all of the details, and there have been enough videos of how police handle situations to question whether this was warranted, but that’s not Barnes’ only legal issue. Less than two years before that, Barnes was arrested for suspicion of domestic violence perpetrated against the same woman Fisher is now dating, Gloria.
So, either Barnes is the most unlucky, lied-about man in the league, or he has serious anger management problems. I mean, he DROVE 95 MILES and at the end of the nearly 2-hour drive STILL decided that it was a good idea to fight Fisher instead of, oh I don’t know, maybe USING HIS WORDS.
Even if Fisher doesn’t want to press charges, the NBA needs to take action. Yes, this happened during off-hours, but if people can be fined for tweets during off hours about disagreeing with the refs, then issues of violence should be taken seriously.
It makes me wonder, if there were a video of this would everyone be feeling differently? Is that where we’re all at, that we need to SEE violence, not just the scratches as proof that it happened, in order to take action?
I like watching Barnes play ball; he’s got a firy, but child-like way of just wanting the ball and wanting to play. But being a professional athlete is not something everyone gets, and he should at the least be suspended while he figures out his anger management issues.
KOBE MONTANA 