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Retired NBA forward Matt Barnes has revealed that he initially stood up for Ime Udoka because he didn’t believe the disgraced Boston Celtics coach deserved the same punishment as Robert Sarver, owner of ‘motherf****r’ Suns.
Udoka was given a one-year suspension for violating team policies amid rumors that he was having a consensual relationship with a female staffer.
Meanwhile, Sarver was given a one-year suspension and a $10 million fine after an NBA investigation found he had used the N-word around employees, bullied workers and committed several other misogynistic acts.
Barnes, 42, initially objected to Udoka’s suspension last week, but turned around on Friday when he learned the ‘all the facts’, which he says are ‘100 times uglier than we all thought’.
He has now claimed that he “didn’t know s**t” about Sarver before the NBA investigation into the Suns owner after his time with the franchise, claiming that Sarver’s and Udoka’s actions were not the same.
“When you’re in the league, you know what Robert Sarver is about,” he said in a preview video of Showtime Basketball’s full “Certified Smoke” 2022-23 NBA season preview.
“You know, I played there. The second time I left, it was like, “this motherf****r’ ain’t s**t”. I was thinking about it, but I could say it well when I left. “This motherf****r’ ain’t s**t,” I knew.
“And that’s kind of why I jumped on a limb because when I first saw it, I jumped out on a limb, ‘damn, these moms got the same suspension.’ To me, what Robert Sarver did was racism, sexism, everything he did. So that’s why I jumped there.
Matt Barnes (left) has revealed he initially stood up for Ime Udoka (right) because he didn’t believe the disgraced Boston Celtics coach deserved the same punishment as Robert Sarver
Sarver was given a one-year suspension and a $10 million fine after an NBA investigation found he had used the N-word around employees, bullied employees and committed misogyny
“Every team is like a big reality show, what goes on behind closed doors is everyone’s business, so when I first heard about Udoka’s situation I thought ‘that’s not that big of a deal and it’s definitely not that big like Sarver.”
“So when I decided to post that. I had people in my DMs saying “what do you think” so I decided to talk about it. Less than two minutes later I get a call saying ‘bro, this happened’. And I’m like “Damn it.”
“So for me, my whole thing was jumping out, like I’m strapping him to have his back. What I thought had happened is pretty normal, not just in the NBA, but just in general.
“But when I heard what happened, it took me a while, but at the same time, it’s still not the same. So I had to kick back.’
Barnes claimed he initially thought Udoka’s situation ‘wasn’t really that big of a deal’
It was revealed Friday that an independent law firm investigating Udoka found that he used abusive language in his dialogue with a female subordinate prior to beginning an inappropriate working relationship with the woman.
Examination findings with the coach revealed that Udoka used language that was considered “of a supervisor in the workplace.”
It likely played a major role in his one-year suspension and contributed to making it particularly difficult for Udoka to be reinstated as Celtics coach in 2023, according to ESPN.
An investigation into the Boston Celtics head coach revealed that he used abusive language in his dialogue with a female subordinate before having an affair with the woman.
In a self-shot Instagram video last week, Barnes recalled his initial thoughts, explaining that he deleted his previous post criticizing the decision for having been given more information.
“Without knowing all the facts, I talked about Ime Udoka’s defense, and after I found out the facts after I spoke, I erased what I posted because this Boston situation is deep, it’s messy, it’s 100 times uglier than any of us thought,” Barnes told the camera as he drove his car.
“And that’s why I erased what I said. Things have happened that I can’t condone, that I can’t undo, and it’s not up to me to tell you what happened. If it comes out, it comes out. But that’s why I deleted my message last night, because after I posted it, I got a call from someone who had all the details, and s*** is deep.”
Barnes went on to say he hopes the blogs that picked up on his first post on the subject will see him roll back his criticism of the Celtics.
“I saw a lot of blogs picking up on what I said even if it was only on the page for two minutes so hopefully they pick this up too because I’m wrong and jump out without the facts,” he said.