Matt Barnes: Two parents were functioning drug users. Dad was in the streets making ends meet. There was violence, there were drugs, there was just a lot of [expletive] going on. That’s what I grew up on. My dad and I connected on sports—and he loved to fight. He told me to start fighting because I faced a lot of racism as a kid, because I’m Italian. At nine years old, that’s when I started fighting. So it’s like—I learned sports, and I learned to fight. That’s what I learned from my dad. My mom gave me the love. But it was never really… I felt like… it was never really—my dad was tough love. You know what I mean? So it’s just like—that creates [expletive] now. I’m learning—I don’t let my guard down. I’m not empathetic. I’m not… there’s a lot of different things I’m not. Even though I don’t think I’m a bad person, there’s still just a lot of qualities that I have a hard time unleashing, because I was just never really taught to unleash that [expletive]. -via YouTube / May 3, 2025
