Larry Brown Sports

Serge Ibaka avoided suspension for his chop to Blake Griffin’s groin region during Sunday’s Oklahoma City Thunder-Los Angeles Clippers game, and his seemingly light penalty has left players like LeBron James and Matt Barnes complaining about what they believe is inconsistency from the league office.

Ibaka’s foul was upgraded from a flagrant one to a Flagrant-2 foul, which means he should have been automatically ejected from the game. He also was fined $25,000. LeBron James felt Ibaka’s punishment was light and expressed his thoughts over Twitter Tuesday:

So explain to me the difference? My teammate gets a 1 game suspension and 150k+ taking away from him for his groin altercation #strangetome

— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 5, 2013

James was referring to teammate Dwyane Wade, who was suspended a game for kicking Bobcats guard Ramon Sessions in the groin.

Wade later chimed in as well:

All I can say is WoW….no pun intended but really….and I get suspended and lose 200 grand… #someexplainingtodo

— Way of WADE (@DwyaneWade) March 5, 2013

Clippers player Matt Barnes, whose teammate was on the receiving end of the chop, feels there is a double-standard for the NBA depending on who commits the infraction:

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Los Angeles Clippers forward Matt Barnes was ejected from the team’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves Wednesday after violently pushing Greg Stiemsma in the neck during the second quarter.

Barnes may have been upset with a screen from Stiemsma and reacted by pushing the center. He was ejected immediately after being assessed with a flagrant 2 foul.

Stiemsma must have still been upset over the uncalled for shove from Barnes, because he retaliated a minute later.

Stiemsma pushed Grant Hill to the ground while Hill was attempting to rebound an Alexey Shved miss. Stiemsma dangerously timed his push, waiting until Hill was in the air and unable to protect himself. He was assessed a flagrant 1 foul for the act.

Matt Barnes was caught on video using profanity and a homophobic slur during a July arrest, and he has apologized for his language.

Barnes was arrested on July 30 for an outstanding traffic warrant and for threatening an officer. The Clippers forward was released on $51,000 bail later that night, and now we have video that shows his alleged uncooperative behavior from that evening.

TMZ obtained and published video from the arrest, and it shows Barnes and his wife, Gloria Govan, appearing to give the officers a difficult time while resisting arrest.

The video shows an officer telling Govan, who was standing next to Barnes, to “turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

“For what?” she responds.

Govan continues to refuse to move away from her husband and complains that another officer wouldn’t tell them why Barnes was being arrested. She suggests the officers “pow-wow” and then let them know why the arrest is being made.

“And why don’t you ask [the] officer how he found Matt in the first place?” she asks one officer.

“Yeah, by f—ing stalking me, which is probably illegal,” Barnes chimes in.

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Jason Terry caused a skirmish between the Mavs and Lakers on Thursday night when he shoved Steve Blake in the fourth quarter (watch the video). Five players wound up being suspended including Matt Barnes who decided to rip Mavs assistant coach Terry Stotts off of him. Well the bad blood between the teams did not cool off there.

On Friday, Terry was a guest on the radio with Colin Cowherd and traded a few shots. He was asked about Matt Barnes and whether or not he feels Barnes is an enforcer type guy for the Lakers. Suffice it to say, Terry highly disagreed.

“I call Barnes the Charminator. You know what that is? That is a guy that’s soft as toilet paper. It’s not only that he’s a Pac-10er and he’s a Bruin, and so you know we hate those guys — us Wildcats we hate Bruins. Whenever you don that uniform, I can’t stand you, other than Reggie Miller. Some guys put on that Laker uniform and you turn into Jerry West, Kareem, and Worthy, and Magic. Those are the real Lakers, not Barnes.

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Lakers forward Matt Barnes has been out nearly two months with a knee injury. On Thursday, he tweeted that he was hoping to be back on the court soon for the Lakers. He even shared a picture of himself with Snoop Dogg because he plans to wear Snoop’s Adidas shoes (which we previously profiled). Here’s the picture, and take notice of the tall, narrow glass item on the left:

I’m sure there’s a thousand good reasons why a water pipe is in the room, just like there was a good reason for the water pipe in Michael Phelps’ hands. I’m just saying it’s not the look you want, particularly coming from your own twitter account. Oh wait, I get it — Barnes’ account was hacked and the bong was photoshopped into the picture. Has to be it!

Although Lamar Kardashian should have felt embarrassment for getting stuffed by the rim on a dunk attempt and watching his team lose to the Magic on Sunday, Lamar’s been doing a lot of talking. After the game, Odom mocked Matt Barnes’ defensive efforts, comparing Barnes to pro wrestler Ric Flair. Odom added onto that comment after the Lakers’ win Tuesday night, saying “That [expletive] that Matt Barnes pulled, that ain’t never going to happen again.” Barnes must have been alerted to that comment because he wrote the following response on his twitter (minor bad language):

Morning yall up early w/ the babies watchn Dora. Seems Lamar can’t keep my name out his mouth maby I need 2 put my sons shitty diaper n it

That tweet was definitely Vince McMahon approved. As much as the hype has built up over the Lakers and Cavs meeting in the finals, count me as someone who would love to see a Lakers/Magic rematch. Is there anything better than teams that dislike each other and players that seem to hate each other? That’s what I’m looking for!

Sources:
Matt Barnes fires back at Lamar Odom with diaper tweet [Orlando Sentinel]
Matt Barnes’ Twitter [Twitter]
Matt Barnes on Rotoworld [Rotoworld]
A bittersweet game winner [ESPN]

Kobe Bryant and Matt Barnes were all over each other the entire second half in Orlando Sunday. Barnes isn’t the first player to try and make a name for himself by attempting to psyche out Kobe, but he definitely was the latest. The two constantly elbowed, jostled, and talked trash to each other, to the point that they got a double technical. Although Matt Barnes and the Magic scored a victory on the scoreboard (96-94), it was the Lakers and Kobe who got the minor wins.

Lamar Odom got off this great line on Barnes: “(Barnes) got the crowd into it. Ric Flair does the same thing. He had all the wrestling regalia today. All he needed was a cape and some tights.” Odom was just bitter from getting hung at the rim on a missed dunk and the Lakers loss, but that was still pretty funny. The other small victory for the Lakers was Kobe’s ice cold reaction to Matt Barnes who faked throwing the ball in Kobe’s face on an inbounds pass. Here’s a video compilation of their skirmishes with the Kobe fake pass flinching part at 2:15. It’s priceless:

By the way, Pau Gasol is right on when he says the Lakers need to spread the ball around more and work it inside more frequently. Gasol is a multi-talented player who can pass out of the post as well as score. Not only should he get more opportunities at the expense of Kobe’s 30 shots, but also at Derek Fisher’s 13 shots and Ron Artest’s 3-19 performance the past two games.