When news emerged Tuesday that Derek Fisher had gotten engaged to the ex-wife of Matt Barnes, the latter might have been expected to react on social media. Sure enough, Barnes did, but instead of using Instagram to throw some shade at Fisher, as he has done in the past, he offered congratulations.
Barnes noted that he has “two beautiful boys” from his ex-wife, Gloria Govan, and that they are focusing on “co-parenting” and “providing the best atmosphere & childhood” for the children. He said of Fisher, who has been dating Govan since 2015, “They love him, so I love it.”
“Despite not seeing eye to eye initially [with] Derek,” Barnes added, “he & I are on the same page & communicate weekly” about the children.
“With that being said congrats on the engagement!”
Well, that’s a pretty nice thing to say, particularly given that most of the world first learned of the relationship between Fisher and Govan after Barnes was reported in October 2015 to have driven some distance to violently confront his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate, then the head coach of the New York Knicks. A few weeks later, Barnes jabbed at Fisher over the incident, saying they should have handled things as “grown men” but the latter “wanted to run and tell the cops.”
In a New Year’s Eve rant on Instagram, Barnes rang in 2016 by saying, among many other things, “Being stuck in the ‘triangle offense’ w my ex & snitch, I mean former teammate & friend. Who went behind my back, messed w my ex, got caught, got dealt w for being a snake, then ran & told the Police & NBA. Instead of taken that a– whoopin like a man & kept it moving!”
Barnes continued to take shots at Fisher, including in January 2017, after Bleacher Report posted this quote from Fisher: “If the worst thing someone has to say about me is that I’m now going out with a woman who used to be married to this guy I worked with for a year six years ago. … Cool.”
“He sound real tough on here, didn’t sound like that when he was running around my house screaming & pleading,” Barnes said in a reply to the post.
As recently as February, Barnes and Govan clashed on social media in an exchange that began with him wishing her a happy birthday in a since-deleted Instagram post. “Although things have been rocky to say the least the last 4 years,” he said, “I hope that for the sake of our two beautiful baby boys we can come together and co parent them to the best of our abilities! No more games or bulls—. They need both of our love & support equally!”
According to an image taken of the post, Govan replied in the comments that “one can only continue to pray that you take your own advice and learn to peacefully co parent!” She added, “But until then I’ll see you in court next week because you love a frivolous lawsuit. But hey lets keep co-parenting.”
Barnes fired back by accusing Govan of “stealing money” from him and “forging my signature” before saying, “See you in court! Oh & happy bday.”
So that didn’t go well. However, March found Barnes offering a preview of things to come, when he said in an interview with Fox Sports’s Chris Broussard that his children asked that he be “friends” with Fisher. “My boys really took a liking to him,” Barnes said. “‘Daddy, we want you and Derek to be friends, and he’s a good guy.’
“I knew outside of the move he pulled, he was a cool dude. Like I said, we were teammates, and Fish was a cool dude.”
Govan obviously needs no convincing about Fisher, having said “Yes!” when he popped the question earlier this month. According to TMZ Sports, which broke the news Tuesday, Fisher “got down on one knee during a small shindig at their Los Angeles-area home on April 7, surrounded by their kids and Gloria’s nephew.”
Fisher has three children with his ex-wife, Candace, including a daughter, Tatum, who made news in 2007 for having been diagnosed at 10 months old with a rare case of retinal cancer that prompted Fisher to seek his release from the Utah Jazz so he could focus on finding the best care for her. He quickly latched on with the Lakers, while Tatum eventually beat the cancer and is now reportedly in good health.
As an aside, if you’ve gotten this far in the post, you might be interested in this Fisher-related tidbit. According to reports, Candace Fisher brought to their marriage a son named Marshall Faulk Jr., whom she had with the Hall of Fame running back. Faulk’s own ex-wife, Lindsay Stoudt Faulk, subsequently had a child with former Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas. For his part, Arenas had four children with his ex-fiancee, Laura Govan. If that name rings a bell, it’s because she is, yes, Gloria Govan’s sister. Got all that?
In any event, the feud between Fisher and Barnes appears to have died down, if the latter’s Instagram post Tuesday was any indication. “You guys want this to be an issue, it’s not!” Barnes wrote in a caption to his post. “I’ve known about this for a few weeks & I am all for it.”
So there you have it, nothing more to see here. Except that … Barnes subsequently deleted the post. Hmm, did more drama break out in the comments section?
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