Matt Barnes congratulates former nemesis Derek Fisher on engagement to his ex-wife
Matt Barnes congratulates former nemesis Derek Fisher on engagement to his ex-wife
When news emerged Tuesday that Derek Fisher had gotten engaged to the ex-wife of Matt Barnes, the latter might have been expected to react on social media. Sure enough Barnes did, but instead of using Instagram to throw some shade at Fisher, as he has done in the past, he offered congratulations.
Barnes noted that he has “two beautiful boys” from his ex-wife, Gloria Govan, and that they are focusing on “co-parenting” and “providing the best atmosphere & childhood” for the children. He said of Fisher, who has been dating Govan since 2015, “They love him, so I love it.”
“Despite not seeing eye to eye initially [with] Derek,” Barnes added, “he & I are on the same page & communicate weekly” about the children.
“With that being said congrats on the engagement!”
Well, that’s a pretty nice thing to say, particularly given that most of the world first learned of the relationship between Fisher and Govan after Barnes was reported in October 2015 to have driven some distance to violently confront his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate, then the head coach of the New York Knicks. A few weeks later, Barnes jabbed at Fisher over the incident, saying they should have handled things as “grown men” but the latter “wanted to run and tell the cops.”
In a New Year’s Eve rant on Instagram, Barnes rang in 2016 by saying, among many other things, “Being stuck in the ‘triangle offense’ w my ex & snitch, I mean former teammate & friend. Who went behind my back, messed w my ex, got caught, got dealt w for being a snake, then ran & told the Police & NBA. Instead of taken that a– whoopin like a man & kept it moving!”
Barnes continued to take shots at Fisher, including in January 2017, after Bleacher Report posted this quote from Fisher: “If the worst thing someone has to say about me is that I’m now going out with a woman who used to be married to this guy I worked with for a year six years ago. … Cool.”
“He sound real tough on here, didn’t sound like that when he was running around my house screaming & pleading,” Barnes said in a reply to the post.
As recently as February, Barnes and Govan clashed on social media in an exchange that began with him wishing her a happy birthday in a since-deleted Instagram post. “Although things have been rocky to say the least the last 4 years,” he said, “I hope that for the sake of our two beautiful baby boys we can come together and co parent them to the best of our abilities! No more games or bulls—. They need both of our love & support equally!”
According to an image taken of the post, Govan replied in the comments that “one can only continue to pray that you take your own advice and learn to peacefully co parent!” She added, “But until then I’ll see you in court next week because you love a frivolous lawsuit. But hey lets keep co-parenting.”
Barnes fired back by accusing Govan of “stealing money” from him and “forging my signature” before saying, “See you in court! Oh & happy bday.”
So that didn’t go well. However, March found Barnes offering a preview of things to come, when he said in an interview with Fox Sports’s Chris Broussardthat his children asked that he be “friends” with Fisher. “My boys really took a liking to him,” Barnes said. “‘Daddy, we want you and Derek to be friends, and he’s a good guy.’
“I knew outside of the move he pulled, he was a cool dude. Like I said, we were teammates, and Fish was a cool dude.”
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