Image by Getty Images via @daylifeLOS ANGELES -- It was an unfortunate oversight, but completely accidental. Which is why Matt Barnes was allowed to enter and exit the Lakers locker room Thursday night wearing a Kelly green dress shirt.
"People have been giving me a hard time all night," Barnes said. "I mean, it's green. But it's not Celtic green."
Laughs, not sympathy, met that statement. But Barnes stood his ground, finished buttoning his shirt and apologized to no one for the fashion transgression.
The Los Angeles Lakers are the 10th team Barnes has been with in his nine NBA seasons, so forgive him if it takes him a couple of months to get all the new traditions, fashion faux pas and rivalries of his new team down.
Barnes now has history with a third of the NBA's 30 teams. He's never spent more than two seasons with any organization. He's never signed a contract worth more than $3 million in any season.
"I wish I had the answer to it, I really do," he said. "By no means am I struggling, but for a guy that's been doing what I've been doing, I've yet to really reap the benefits.
"I wish I had the answer because my bank account could use a little bit."
"What he brings is invaluable," Lakers guard Kobe Bryant said. "Nobody really appreciates what he does. He's got to get on teams like ours that are veteran teams, championship teams, great teams, that really appreciate what he brings to the team."
The Lakers have some scars that never fade, too. As sweet as their last two championship runs have been, there will always be the sour memory of what happened three years ago in Boston, where the Celtics basically punked them in the NBA Finals.
"I think it was a conscious effort to get tougher," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said at Barnes' introductory news conference this fall. "We didn't add [Ron Artest] because he's a 25-points-a-game scorer, we added him because of his defensive ability [and] his toughness that he brings to the court.
"I thought a couple years ago when Andrew [Bynum] got hurt we weren't very, I guess 'tough' is the word; Kobe may have been our toughest player, but Andrew came back this year and we added Ron Artest and now Matt Barnes is going to help even more so."
So far, Barnes has fit well with the Lakers. He's still learning the triangle offense. But he's accepted his role with the second unit, shot well from outside and hustled, scrapped and clawed for every inch of territory, just as the Lakers expected.
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