Matt Barnes has been the backbone of the Los Angeles Clippers for the past three years. If the other team got froggy, Matt Barnes leaped and backed up his squad. He got in every players face when necessary (and unnecessary).
So when he ended up in Memphis, known league wide as ‘The Grindhouse’, you know that Barnes will feel right at home. He’s already acting like a Grizzlies player, telling former teammate DeAndre Jordan that he’ll ‘Foul the bleep’ out of him when they reunite.
“I told him, ‘Even though we’re good friends, I’m still going to foul the beep out of you when we play,’” Barnes recalled Tuesday during his introductory news conference in Memphis. “That’s just the kind of player I am. There’s no hard feelings…
“Basically coming from the enemy and now they’re the enemy,” Barnes said of the Clippers, “my kids are a little confused still. I have twin boys and they’re just like, ‘So, Daddy, do you not like DeAndre, Chris [Paul] and Blake [Griffin] no more?’ And I’m like, ‘No, they’re still my friends, it’s just they’re my enemy when the ball goes up.’”
It is clear that Barnes has a fighters mentality, as soon as the ball goes up for the tip-off, it’s on. He probably has a ‘ding ding’ in his head.
