Derek Fisher “I Wasn’t Fired Over Matt Barnes Incident”

A month after being fired as the head coach for the New York Knicks, Derek Fisher cleared the air and addressed rumors related to the firing in an essay for Sports Illustrated’s “The Cauldron.” While media outlets claimed that Fisher was fired as a result of his altercation with former Lakers teammate Matt Barnes, Fisher claims that his personal life had nothing to do with him leaving the Knicks.

“At no time did anyone at that meeting express to me that stories about my personal life were distracting from the collective task at hand, or – more important – that any of my players had expressed to management that they had lost confidence in me as their coach. Nothing remotely like that was ever brought up or discussed. That’s why I was shocked when stories like that surfaced in the media. So were my players. At the time, we were going through a difficult 1–9 stretch, but to its credit, the entire team was still responsive to my leadership, decision making and coaching. They hadn’t given up on me. They weren’t questioning my integrity. My relationships with my players were good and becoming stronger.”

When it comes to Barnes, Fisher said that he never got into an altercation with the Grizzlies baller. He added that he didn’t understand what was going through Matt’s head when he showed up unannounced at the home of Gloria Govan, Matt’s ex and Derek’s current girlfriend.

Before revealing that he was never close with Matt, Derek explained, “I don’t know what was going through Matt’s mind that day in October when he showed up unannounced at Gloria’s house, and started swinging. I didn’t retaliate. No one who was there did anything but try to get him to calm down, particularly because Matt and Gloria’s children were present. There was no fight. That’s it. There’s nothing more to what happened than that.”

SOURCE: VLADTV