Clippers Matt Barnes fined $25,000 for actions on Wednesday
By Peter Smith
The NBA has announced a $25,000 fine for Los Angeles Clippers small forward Matt Barnes. According to the NBA, the fine was for Barnes not leaving the court in a timely manner and then for explicit language on his Twitter account. Barnes was ejected along with Serge Ibaka of the Oklahoma City Thunder after a scrum took place when Barnes was standing up for Clipper power forward Blake Griffin.
After Barnes left the court in an ‘untimely matter’, he took to twitter and used a racial slur to describe his teammates in addition to basically suggesting he was no longer willing to stand up for them as it was just costing him money. Barnes deleted the tweet and later apologized.
The NBA was likely perfectly right in their ability to fine Barnes for not leaving quickly enough, but his activity on twitter was the issue that was the discussion all over radio, television and internet today, so that seemed to be where the fine was really aimed. Questions remain about Barnes and his relationship with the team and how this will progress from here. It might have been a small blowup and one incident of anger, but there will plenty of interest and analysis the next time this type of situation comes up in a game.