During his time in the NBA, Matt Barnes was not someone players were eager to mess with on the court. But as Kevin Garnett revealed, Barnes was a completely different person on the court during his rookie year. It was during his second year in the league that a certain change took place within Barnes that shocked KG.
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During a crossover between KG: Certified and All the Smoke, Garnett called out Barnes for his change in demeanor. He pointed out how sweet Matt was in his rookie year, which made KG very fond of him.
However, KG admitted that seeing the former Clipper in his second season in the NBA with multiple tattoos and a dogged mentality left him confused. Of course, everyone laughed at first at Garnett’s revelation.
However, Barnes then went on to reveal the real reason behind the transformation.
“I used to get bullied, no bull. Like, people try to be light-skinned, hair, couple tattoos, they would try to bully me. So, just early on, like I’d be cool with you, smoke weed with you all day after. But during the day, between them lines… it’s funny because the mentality hasn’t changed.”
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Due to his skin color, Matt Barnes needed to toughen up as a person to earn the respect he deserved. Fortunately for him, it didn’t take long for him to level up.
And soon he became one of the NBA’s biggest smack-talkers. While Kevin Garnett may complain about this change of his, KG wasn’t all that different himself.
Kevin Garnett was a smack-talker himself
As so many in the NBA community would admit, watching Kevin Garnett talk trash was akin to watching a fish swim through the water. It felt as if he was born to do it.
Much like so many others, Iman Shumpert had the misfortune of playing against him on many different occasions. And at one point, he decided to reveal his experience to a fellow former NBA guard Gilbert Arenas, saying,
“Everybody see KG tweak out on TV. Being in game and hear him really tweaking and really saying something to like really disturb you…The second time we had played against him, maybe third time I realized, ‘Ah, he not all the way just talking sh*t. He allowing his team to understand where he’s at…’”
In the end, while he was beyond shocked at the change he saw in Matt Barnes, he was exactly the same himself. Today the two just laugh about just how similar they were to each other by the end of their careers despite how different they were before.
