Matt Barnes continues to imply there’s something sordid that went on behind the scenes with Ime Udoka.
via: Complex
While on VladTV, Barnes explained that he saw a lot of people in the NBA get involved in messy relationships during his time as an active player, but the Udoka situation is different. “Like I heard, it’s not about what he did, I guess it’s about who he did it with,” he said, noting that any further revelations could “flip the game upside down” if they come out. “This is not something that’s, you know, only in the NBA. It happens in the workplace all around. It’s not so much the act.”
Barnes was asked if he ever “messed around” with a cheerleader or someone along those lines, and admitted that he did during his younger days. “Some teams have rules, some teams don’t,” he continued, noting this was around the early ‘00s. “If I talked to a cheerleader here or there it wasn’t really that big of a deal, but just as far as kind of moving up further than that? That was never my cup of tea. There was too many women that weren’t even in this workspace that, you know, we can hang out with.”
Circling back around to the Udoka situation, Barnes said that he’s “praying” for everyone involved because “it’s heavy.” Ultimately he wants to avoid talking about the family side of the drama, though, because he’s had his own fair share of messy relationship incidents during his career.
“Oh he’s a great coach,” he said of Udoka. “Boston will figure out a way, but you know if everything comes out he’ll be lucky if he coaches in the NBA again to be honest with you. … I think it’s pretty heavy, man. It’s just some stuff you can’t do… Not judging, to each his own I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but if everything comes out it could get extra hot in the kitchen for him, yeah.”
The interview with Vlad comes not long after Barnes backtracked on his defense of Udoka, who allegedly had an affair with an unnamed Boston Celtics staffer. “Last night, without knowing all the facts, I spoke on Ime Udoka’s defense and after finding out the facts after I spoke, I erased what I posted because this situation in Boston is deep, it’s messy, it’s 100 times uglier than any of us thought,” Barnes said. “Some things happened that I can’t condone, I can’t back, and it’s not my place to tell you what happened. If it ends up coming out, it ends up coming out.”
Udoka has been suspended for an entire season on account of the situation.
