The NBA fined Los Angeles Clippers forward Matt Barnes $25,000, a day after he was ejected from a game against Oklahoma City and reacted with a Twitter fit.
The league said Barnes was fined for failing to leave the court in a timely manner, and for using inappropriate language on his Twitter account during the game.
Barnes and Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka were thrown out of the game with 6.2 seconds remaining in the second quarter of the Clippers’ 111-103 victory over the Thunder.
The Clippers’ Blake Griffin was going up for a shot when his arms and Ibaka’s became entangled, which led to a scuffle in which Barnes shoved Ibaka.
Griffin was assessed a technical foul but not thrown out of the game.
During the third quarter, Barnes posted an angry tweet that included a racial slur.
The tweet was soon deleted, and on Thursday Barnes took to the social networking site to apologize.
“I was completely wrong for pushing Ibaka and then for what I tweeted following the altercation,” he said.
“I’ve been doing this for too long to let my emotions get the best of me,” he added. “My poor choice of words and timing do not reflect who or what I am about. It was very selfish on my part of make this situation about me instead of my teammates that fought their hearts out and earned a big win against a tough team.
“Now I could have took the easy way out and said ‘My Twitter was hacked,’ but that’s not what I’m about,” added Barnes, who said he took full responsibility “for all my inappropriate action last night”.
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