Report: Derek Fisher was dogged by rumors he was seeing players’ girlfriends

Derek Fisher’s incident with Matt Barnes was apparently a huge factor in the Knicks locker room losing trust in him, but there were apparently trust issues that existed well before that.

According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, rumors flew in the Knicks’ locker room that Fisher was involved with the significant others of some players, rumors which only gained plausibility after the Barnes incident. Things got so bad that Tim Hardaway Jr., who played for the Knicks through 2014-15, even asked his girlfriend if the rumors were true.

“I’ve seen those. No reaction over here. I know all those are lies. They are going to do whatever they can, especially here in New York (with the media),” Hardaway said. “So I am not even worried about that. I had a talk with my girlfriend. If you ask me, it is not true at all. I am completely positive with her judgment and what she said.”

Bondy notes that there’s no evidence to support any of the rumors, but it’s pretty bad if Hardaway felt the need to ask his girlfriend about them. Perhaps Barnes wasn’t kidding when he said that some of the Knicks were actually on his side, because the issues with Fisher apparently ran deep.