It’s the 10th anniversary of the Golden State Warriors winning their first title of the Steph Curry era. But that’s not the only notable event in the NBA from 2015. That was also the year when Matt Barnes left the Grizzlies training camp so that he could beat up Derek Fisher for canoodling with his estranged wife.
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Barnes and his now ex-wife, Gloria Govan, were separated when the incident occurred. But after Barnes got wind from his twin boys that Fisher, his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate, was at his house, he raced 95 miles to put a stop to it.
Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt in the scrape. Fisher suffered a few minor scratches, according to a Los Angeles Times report of the incident. Barnes spoke about the incident five years ago on the popular VladTV YouTube channel, recounting it with amazing detail.
For instance, he spoke about the bodyguard helping stop the altercation from getting worse while Fisher kept screaming the whole time. Barnes said he chased Fisher throughout the house but was never able to get a clean shot in.
“We probably had three times where we got up and I was trying to hit,” said Barnes. “But every time there was guys on my left arm, [and] guys on my right arm, pulling me back, so I never really got to fire on him like I wanted to. Luckily, ’cause it coulda got ugly.”
Fisher was entering his second season as head coach of the New York Knicks at the time, and he ended up missing practice the next day. He got fired later that year after compiling a career record of 40-96. Barnes believes that Fisher’s pink slip came in part from what went down that day.
“I don’t think [the Knicks] really wanted to make it that, but I think it definitely had something to do with it,” said Barnes.
For his role in the matter, Barnes was suspended for two games. He marveled at being punished for something that occurred in his own house. And though the players’ union fought it, Barnes ultimately dug his own grave by hilariously saying, “Violence is never the answer, but sometimes it is.” The timing was ominous too: Before his Grizzlies met Fisher’s Knicks a few months later.
Barnes was fined $35,000 for those comments, which in hindsight seems like a small price. Fisher later went on to become the head coach of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, going 54-46 in 3+ seasons before being fired in 2022. Fisher and Govan got engaged in 2018 and married in 2021.
The story has a happy ending as far as Barnes and Fisher are concerned. The two have since put their beef behind them. As Barnes said in the interview, his kids ended up liking Fisher, and as he saw it, Govan “could be with much worse” than his former teammate.
Barnes, Fisher, and Govan now co-parent the twins. Fisher is a high school coach in California, where he coaches both boys. And Barnes is the cohost of the highly successful and aptly named All the Smoke podcast.
