No matter how long a basketball player has averaged on the court, if their NBA team wins a championship, they’re being fitted for a ring. Throughout NBA history, some players have found themselves as the target of scrutiny for flaunting their championship rings when they weren’t instrumental in bringing home the trophy, but many have argued that teams both win together and lose together. Matt Barnes, however, goes by a different creed, and he recently admitted that he refuses to accept his 2017 championship ring.
Noel Vasquez / Stringer / Getty Images
While on his All the Smoke podcast recently, Matt Barnes discussed his 2017 win with the Golden State Warriors—a win that he doesn’t count. “I came in when [Kevin Durant] went down, playing a consistent 20-25 minutes. The game KD comes back, I get hurt maybe a week before the playoffs and I’m out of it. Worst ankle sprain of my life. I’m not healthy until the end of the second round,” Barnes said. As a “vet,” he didn’t expect them to change the rotation. “I’m just going to sit here and be a super vet and cheer these motherf*ckers on. Talk to people when they need to be talked to and just enjoy the ride. We did win it…I don’t count that as a championship.”
Barnes added that his ring is sitting in the office of Raymond Ridder, the Golden State Warriors’ Vice President of Communications. “I got a free ride, I got a free ring…I don’t count myself as an NBA champ.” Watch the episode in its entirety below or catch Barnes’s commentary on his championship ring around the 1:09:00 mark.
