Lakers Don’t Take Kindly to ‘The Nature Boy’ Matt Barnes

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↵Things were definitely getting chippy between Matt Barnes and Kobe Bryant during the Magic home win yesterday against the Lakers. The two constantly exchanged bumps and just missed being ejected for each nearly receiving their second technical foul when they collided after a Barnes dunk in the third quarter. The intimidation tactics devolved to the point that Barnes pump-faked spiking the ball in Kobe’s face on an inbound pass. Kobe earned the respect of playground kids everywhere by not deigning to flinch.↵↵Even if he wasn’t able to get to Kobe, Barnes left an impression with the rest of the Lakers. Lamar Odom, in particular, had some choice words in regards to his antics, likening him to a famous professional wrestler.↵

↵↵⇥“He (Barnes) got the crowd into it. Ric Flair does the same thing. He had all the wrestling regalia today. All he needed was a cape and some tights.”↵↵↵Well, minus the cape and tights, what regalia did he have then? Those are pretty integral to the pro wrestling look. Or was there a Rasheed Wallace-like championship belt that the cameras missed? And c’mon- I didn’t see any backhanded slaps to the chest. The Nature Boy wouldn’t let an opponent get out of a match without that. But if we really want to go down the wrestling path, Wrestlemania is, of course, only a few weeks away. Vince McMahon would be only too happy to oblige.↵

↵↵But then, since Odom also called Barnes “a monkey” after the game, I suppose it’s safe to assume he’s speaking more out of frustration than anything else.↵

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