By now everybody has heard that Matt Barnes reportedly drove about 100 miles to “beat the sh*t” outta Knicks coach Derek Fisher for hanging out with his estranged wife at a home he owns. Depending on who you ask, Barnes either punched Fisher in the face, or nothing other than a few scratches happened because people stepped in to break it up. Neither Fisher nor Barnes have been very forthcoming with details other than Barnes saying he only drove there for his kids but Fisher finally did comment on the situation, along with Carmelo Anthony.
@IamJoeSports
When questioned about the incident and what may have fueled it following the game on Wednesday night, Fisher had this to say:
“Personal and private matters are personal and private. We’re obviously public figures, but we’re at work. So I won’t be commenting on anything that’s happened personally or privately for me.”
He did, however, reveal that he spoke with Knicks players regarding the possible altercation.
“I wanted to make sure that before they were asked about it at least that they heard from me directly about my state of mind and how present I am,” Fisher said. “I’ve been through a lot in life and experienced a lot of things. And sometimes we go through things in life that we can or cannot control. I’m here; I’m focused. It’s not something that’s going to take me away from who we are and what we’re trying to do. And I assured them of that. The only way to do that is to go out and do your job, and that’s what we’re going to do tonight.”
“It kind of caught everybody off guard,” said Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony. “Nobody really knew what was going on. Still, nobody knows the details of what’s happening.”
At the end of the day, Fisher and the Knicks just need to hope all this passes sooner rather than later because they have enough to work on without off the court distractions. Especially ones that involve the head coach!
For what it’s worth, in my opinion Fisher is lucky Barnes didn’t do more to him. They were teammates and friends and that’s just not something you should be doing.
