Matt Barnes has done a 180 with his opinion on Ime Udoka.
The former NBA player spoke on Instagram Thursday about the situation and defended the coach. On Friday, he shared a new video on Instagram where he took back his defense of Udoka and apologized for previously speaking without knowledge of the facts.
“Last night, without knowing all the facts, I spoke on Ime Udoka’s defense,” Barnes began. “After finding out the facts after I spoke, I erased what I posted because this situation in Boston is deep. It’s messy. It’s 100 times uglier than any of us thought. That’s why I erased what I said. Some things happened that I can’t condone, I can’t back.”
Barnes said that after he posted his defense of Udoka, he received a phone call from someone with knowledge of the situation.
“It’s not my place to tell you what happened. If it ends up coming out, it ends up coming out. But that was the reason why I erased my post last night. After I posted it, I got a call from someone who had all the details. S–t is deep. Man, praying for everybody involved. Hope everybody gets through this.”
Here is the video, with some profanity.
Barnes, 42, is no stranger to love triangles. He once reportedly drove over 90 miles to confront and fight Derek Fisher, who was in a relationship with Barnes’ ex-girlfriend. If Barnes, who has noticeably done irresponsible personal things in the past, is saying the Udoka situation is this bad — and praying for everyone involved — then it sounds pretty bad.
On Thursday, the Celtics announced that they had suspended Udoka for the entire 2022-2023 season.
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