Matt Barnes is the kind of player you love when he is on your team but hate when he is on the other side. The Clippers are going to get a taste of that next season. For the past three seasons, Barnes has brought his intense, physical style of play to the Clippers (who needed it, they had been seen as soft at times). This summer he got traded (to Charlotte, which moved him on to Memphis). The Grizzlies are known for their tough style of play so Barnes should fit right in and he’s already letting his former teammates know he won’t go easy on them.
Barnes warned former Clipper teammate DeAndre Jordan that once the ball goes up he is not going to play nice, reports the Los Angeles Times (h/t ProBasketballTalk).
“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.’”
That’s vintage Barnes. He is a perfect fit in for the “grit and grind” style of the Grizzlies. That’s the only way he knows how to play.
