Matt Barnes recently revealed that the most well-known moment in his career saw him receive wild death threats, because it involved Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
Barnes became enemy number one amongst Lakers fans after he tried to intimidate Kobe during a Lakers-Magic game in the 2009-10 season.
During the game, Barnes was attempting to pass the ball to his teammate from out of bounds when Kobe came up right in his face to guard him.
In an attempt in intimidate Bryant, Barnes faked a pass right in Kobe’s face, but it backfired because he didn’t even flinch.
The reaction by Kobe went down as one of the coldest in NBA history.
And the moment drew some hectic reactions from Lakers fans, as Barnes recalls receiving death threats afterwards.
“It was crazy because I was getting super death threats after that,” Barnes said on Podcast P with Paul George. “I was kind of the bad guy, the villain, whatever. But, I became the real villain after that s***. People said on Twitter they’re gonna kill me. They’re gonna find my address, kill my kids, kill my girl. ‘Come to L.A. You better never come back to L.A. We gonna kill you.’ You can’t f*** with Kobe. Them eses in L.A. don’t play about the Lakers and [Los Angeles] Dodgers and particularly Kobe. Bro, I got so many death threats. I kid you not.”
Despite the over the top threats from Lakers fans, the moment led to Barnes actually teaming up with Kobe and donning the purple and gold.
After that season, Kobe called him up and asked him to the join, Barnes revealed in a 2022 interview.
“He just talked to me,” he said on The Pat McAfee Show. “He liked the way I played, how hard I played. The intensity I played with. He told me literally like, ‘Anyone crazy to f**k with me is crazy enough to play with me. Do you want to be a Laker?’…Maybe three or four days after he asked me that question, I was a Laker.”
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