MATT BARNES IGNITES MELEE?
Never saw this one coming… sweet Suns forward Matt Barnes and his fabulous tattoos got the boys fired up during the Suns-Rocket game. Barnes ignited the flurry after taking a ‘cheap shot’ at Rockets guard Rafer Alston…never thought in a million years I’d see Tracy McGrady, Steve Nash, Yao Ming and Shaq-daddy contributing to such an entertaining mess.

No punches were thrown and no players left the benches. Matt Barnes explains…”I tried to get through a screen, and I guess I was too rough for him, so he tried to retaliate,” Barnes said. “It was just a bunch of pushing, I didn’t think anyone should have gotten thrown out because there were no punches thrown. But the refs did what they thought was necessary.”

AOL Fan House asked Barnes if he thought that maybe Alston overreacted to the initial play; he wasn’t sure. “I don’t really know what he was thinking, he thinks he’s tough so … I don’t know really. He ran up on me, and, it was really just a bunch of pushes. No one threw any punches, no one did anything serious. But the refs had to get control of the game so they figured throwing us out would do that…I thought you had to throw a punch to get kicked out of a game, really. All I did was push him, and he pushed me, I mean, T-Mac pushed Steve all the way to the ground and didn’t get thrown out of the game, so …”

So…let’s hear from the other real-fake-brawling babe, Alston: “He (Barnes) just took a cheap shot at me. If you look at the replay, the ref is standing there watching it. It was a dirty play, he raised his arm. Good thing he didn’t connect and knock my teeth out. I was just setting a screen, we were trying to get two for one … I don’t know if he was frustrated by his game or their game or or whatever was going on, but there was no call for that. There was no call for my reaction really but sometimes, when someone goes at you like that, you just react.”

Boys will indeed be boys…

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As always, thanks for reading.
Delinda Lombardo