Yesterday during the Los Angeles Lakers v Orlando Magic game, Matt Barnes tried to go all “inside-yer-head” on Kobe Bryant. Any sane person knows that you just don’t do that with the Black Mamba. He strikes. Of course, the Magic went onto win the game, with Kobe missing a potential game-tying shot as time expired. But I think we can safely say that Barnes didn’t entirely win the battle, given that Bryant still managed to drill two massive threes as the Lakers got within touching distance at the end.
Speaking of “touching distance”… during the game, one of the little childish games played by Barnes was captured in this image above, where he played the old playground “I’m going to throw the ball at your face” move. Kobe, being the true warrior (or is that “TruWarier“?) that he is, did not flinch one inch, looking on bemused.
I posted the above screengrab to twitter immediately after it happened and 20+ people retweeted it immediately, with over 1,250 viewing it on twitpic. So I thought I would post it here for two reasons:
- For those that missed it, to enjoy the stance of a “warrior”; and
- To briefly bask in the glory of how great social media can be in this day and age. Think back to how it was watching a game on television 5-10 years ago; you might have a couple of friends nearby, you might not. Either way, there was little likelihood that you could share commentary on game action with literally hundreds of thousands of people at a time. This is just one of those moments where we have to sit back and think, “the internets are amazing.”
UPDATE: Here is video from the incident.
One other enjoyable screengrab from the game featured Marcin Gortat, “the Polish Hammer” setting it down hard on a challenging Lamar Odom. Those hammers they use in Poland sure have long extension handles.
