The NBA is as much about drama off the court as it is about brilliance on it. Players constantly push boundaries, and when those boundaries are crossed, the league steps in with fines and penalties, some of which can be eye-watering. Recently, LaMelo Ball made headlines after being fined $100,000 for making an offensive comment during a postgame interview, then there is Anthony Edwards with a $35,000 fine. This is a stark reminder of how the NBA enforces strict conduct rules to protect its image. Following this narrative, former NBA champion Matt Barnes has now pulled back the curtain, sharing shocking details about his own history with league fines.

After the recent game between the Charlotte Hornets and the Milwaukee Bucks, Ball, who helped to drive the Hornets to a 115-114 victory by scoring 26 points during the game, passed the comment, “We loaded up – no h–o,” during the posts game interview which was marked “offensive and derogatory,” by NBA executive Joe Dumars and hence a fine was charged. Matt Barnes took up on this during the latest episode of his podcast and walked the audience through how the League charges it.

“As I said earlier I am no stranger to fines. I think last tally I was close to $600,000 in fines… You don’t get an email from the commissioner. NBA security somehow gets through to you. Normally they go through the team to get to me. I had a ton of call with Kiki Vandeweghe and I love that guy to death. He’s a former Bruin, but Kiki used to fine the f–k out of me… and the tough part is that you don’t even have a chance like, ‘No I’m not paying it’. That s–t comes out of your cheque so if I’m hit with $25000, you know we get paid on the 1st and 15, so wherever that lands, I won’t even see my money, it’ll come directly out of my money,” said Barnes during the podcast.

Barnes’ first fine came in 2013 when he failed to leave the court on time after he was ejected in the third quarter of a game against Minnesota. In the years that followed, he earned a reputation as one of the league’s “bad boys,” because of getting into feud with opponents, officials, and even fans. His next major fine came in 2015 after using inappropriate language towards a fan and another major blow he got $35,000 in the same year when he had physically confronted former New York Knicks coach Derek Fisher.

“But what’s crazy is the NBA security calls. They want to hear the story. So you give them the story, already knowing that they’ve made up their mind, they are dull of s–t. They really don’t care want to hear. They just want to kind of check the boxes and say that they talked to the people involved so there were several fines. I think that I got, that were reputation fines, not actually s–t that I’ve lost line with. But don’t get me wrong, I’ve crossed the line a few times. I appealed a lot of them, but I was successful on none of them,” added Barnes during the podcast.

As LaMelo Ball experiences his first brush with NBA fines, he joins a long list of players who have learned the hard way that the league’s rules are non-negotiable. Meanwhile, Matt Barnes’ revelations offer a behind-the-scenes look at what happens when players cross the line repeatedly. However, the former small forward even shared another story that showed his fierce side.

When Matt Barnes was suspended

Barnes carved his path into the NBA as an underdog. After being drafted in the second round in 2002 by the Memphis Grizzlies, he bounced around the league early in his career. While his determination won him fans, his fiery temper sometimes led to clashes both on and off the court. One such moment was shared by the former champ during the podcast.

Barnes, after telling the story about his fines, showed a little snippet of his on-court feud with Greg Stiemsma of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2013. “He hit me up with a messed up screen earlier in the game and I was just tired of it… This dude he clipped me with his knee and gave me like a charley horse, earlier in the game. So it’s just kind of having enough of his screens and if he wanted smoke, I was ready for it,” said Barnes during the podcast.

On that night, in the game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Timberwolves, Barnes tried to strike Stiemsma in the neck. He was then suspended for his next game against the Toronto Raptors and as a punishment, his pay for one game was cut. Over the years, Barnes has changed a lot, as we can see through his podcast appearances which has shifted his reputation from ‘Bad Boy’ to a respected voice in the basketball community