Matt Barnes, 6-foot-7 and 226-pounds, was officially introduced as a Laker. The Los Angeles Lakers signed him to a two-year deal worth approximately $3.6 million.
Prior to his signing with the Lakers, there was an initial agreement between Toronto and Orlando on a sign-and-trade which did not materialized. Later on, Cleveland refused to increase its offer to Barnes which was reportedly worth double of what the Lakers offered.
Barnes, who was involved in a mix up with Kobe Bryant during the regular season game last year between Orlando and Los Angeles where Orlando won 96-94, brings his relentless style of play to the Lakers backing up Ron Artest at small forward. Both Artest and Barnes are strong defensive players.
Barnes believes that he can provide grit and scoring off the bench for the Lakers.
Matt Barnes described the incident wherein he first texted Bryant about the possibility of him joining the Lakers and he was surprised by the response of Kobe when he text back at him with emphatic encouragement. Several text exchanges made him decide to postpone his pursuit of a long term contract with any NBA team and instead focus on aiding Kobe’s chase for another championship.
He laugh as he shares what Bryant had text him saying “Anyone crazy enough to mess with me is crazy enough to play with me”.
In other development, Lakers are now working out the re-signing of high-flying guard Shannon Brown as they are expecting to close the negotiation in the next 7 to 10 days.
