“You’re just not going to disrespect me as a man” – Matt Barnes recalls almost fighting Doc Rivers on the Clippers originally appeared on Basketball Network.
When two fiery personalities like Matt Barnes and Doc Rivers are around each other, it’s only a matter of time. Sparks were inevitable, and sure enough, they flew.
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Barnes reflected on his beef with Rivers when the two were together with the Los Angeles Clippers. Their bad blood reached a tipping point in the 2014-15 season, where they butted heads two different times.
“We had just lost to Golden State in Golden State. They beat our ass and Blake (Griffin) and D.J. (DeAndre Jordan) didn’t have the best games,” Barnes said in episode five of “All the Smoke “podcast. “But for some reason, just that day, he wanted to go at me in the film room.”
“And I’m someone, you can coach me, you can yell at me. You can do whatever you want. You’re just not going to disrespect me as a man. That’s where I don’t give a f— who you are. That’s where I draw the line,” the 14-year vet added.
Doc singled out Matt
This incident happened in the height of the Clippers’ Lob City, so it’s normal for a coach with championship aspirations to criticize his players’ poor effort. However, that’s not what happened. In Barnes’ recollection, he took the lowest amount of shots among the starters, but Doc somehow singled him out.
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“He got mad at the two shots I took. I took two shots in the game. He complained off both. I’m just looking at this like, “MFer, I took two shots, and we lost by 30. What the f— are you talking about?” stated Barnes.
With all of this going on, Barnes cursed Doc out as he exited the room. He thought of going home, but then decided against it because he didn’t want to leave his teammates hanging. When the film session wrapped up, he returned for the scrimmage, only for tensions to flare up again.
“This MFer comes over to me,” Barnes remembered. “Tells me to flip my jersey over and he’s going to put Jamal with the starters and put me on the second team. So, I look at him, and I took my jersey off, and I threw it. He’s like, “Put your jersey back on.” I’m like, “These motherf—ers know what team I’m on. “So, I didn’t have no jersey the whole practice. Went out hard, killed in practice.”
Verifying the details
As Dan Feldman of NBC Sports noted, the Warriors game Barnes must be talking about was on November 5, 2014, where they lost by 17, 121-104 (not by 30, as Matt claimed). Barnes took four shots, the fewest among the starters, second only to JJ Redick’s six.
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It’s not that the Clippers’ stars played like garbage. Remember that this was the new-look Warriors under Steve Kerr, running a motion offense that had other teams dizzy, scurrying around the perimeter. Dub Nation flexed their brand-new offense and got great looks off it all game.
As Barnes also highlighted, Rivers benched him in practice after the loss to the Warriors. Interestingly, the records show that the 2000 NBA Coach of the Year did relegate Barnes to the bench in favor of Jamal Crawford in their next game vs. Portland.
When Doc traded Barnes
As intense as that encounter may have been, the best part is that the two made amends after. Barnes understood that they were both undergoing personal stuff around the time, so they let bygones be bygones.
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However, that did not stop them from going at it again, this time in the playoffs. According to Barnes, it happened during the Houston series, where the Rockets infamously came back from a 3-1 deficit and won the series.
“Me and Doc almost fought because he was on some BS,” Barnes said on the latest episode of “All the Smoke.” “(As a result), I got traded 10 years ago tonight (July 1) at 12:02 AM. I was the first MFer out of there. Gone! Me for Lance Stephenson… It was crazy.”
The friction between Barnes and Rivers wasn’t personal, but it was the cost of two intense competitors trying to push a team forward in their own way. Barnes didn’t always bite his tongue, but that fire was part of what kept him in the league for 14 seasons.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 1, 2025, where it first appeared.