The Kobe Bryant, Matt Barnes Duel

Bryant and Orlando forward Matt Barnes became a secondary theme in a testy game spiced with 53 fouls, 65 free throws, three technical fouls and a flagrant foul. Bryant picked up his 12th technical this season after getting tangled up with Barnes under the basket while getting position for a rebound early in the third quarter. (Players are suspended for one game if they get 16 technical fouls in the regular season.) In the fourth quarter, Barnes took an offensive rebound, was smacked on the arm by Bryant and exclaimed, "What are you doing?" When asked about Barnes after the game, Bryant chuckled three times in a 10-second span before answering, "It's entertaining." Bryant later said, "Matt Barnes was physical in terms of putting hands on you and things like that. But him bumping me and Kenyon Martin bumping me are two different things." As reporters asked Ron Artest what he thought of Barnes, Lamar Odom yelled out from across the room, calling Barnes a "monkey" who "picked the right game to act tough." Odom later called Barnes an "action figure" and compared him to pro wrestling legend Ric Flair, known for whipping up crowds with his antics.

Kobe Bryant isn't the type of guy I'd wanna piss off. He might get back at me by raping my girlfriend or something. But let's move on. The real story here is Lamar Odom calling Matt Barnes a punk and comparing him to Ric Flair. First off, don't you dare bring the Nature Boy into this. He doesn't deserve it. More importantly, I bet if you interviewed every player in the league and asked who the biggest fake tough guy in the league , was, they'd all say Odom. I don't like him. I'd even go as far as to say I'd rather hang out with Lebron and Tim Tebow over Lamar Odom. So what if Barnes' antics got the crowd going? That's called home court advantage asshole. They don't pay Sean Avery millions of dollars to be boring and nobody in Orlando is going to tell Barnes to back off of Kobe. Having said that, who the fuck is Matt Barnes?