We all know a situation occurred between Matt Barnes and Derek Fisher because Fisher was dating Barnes estranged wife Gloria Govan. Up until now we’ve only heard Barnes side of the story and whatever media “sources” thought they knew. Now we have Fisher’s side and according to him, there was “no fight”.
Fisher wrote a piece called “The Truth” via The Cauldron, expressing what really happened and that it had no bearing on him being fired from the Knicks.
As far as Matt goes, to say that we had history before the incident would be an exaggeration. We played together for the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2010–11 season, and a couple months in the lockout-shortened 2011–12 season. That’s it. That’s the history.
During that time, we were teammates, and never had any issues. We never had any real relationship off the court, either. Our kids didn’t hang out, our families didn’t interact. There were no birthday parties. There were no post-game dinners. We weren’t friends and we had no mutual friends.
When Gloria and I started dating, she and Matt had already been separated and living apart for more than a year. Same thing for me. My wife and I were long separated; she was in L.A., I was in New York. Matt and Gloria were not trying to work things out, and I certainly wasn’t seeing her behind Matt’s back or in secret. The relationship wasn’t something I was trying to publicize, but it also wasn’t something I was trying to hide, either. There was no reason to.
I don’t know what was going through Matt’s mind that day in October when he showed up unannounced at Gloria’s house, and started swinging. I didn’t retaliate. No one who was there did anything but try to get him to calm down, particularly because Matt and Gloria’s children were present. There was no fight.
That’s it. There’s nothing more to what happened than that.
