Scottie Barnes left the bench early and headed for the locker room while there were still a few seconds left on the game clock during the Toronto Raptors 122-99 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
Barnes leaving the bench early was not a good look for the Raptors face of the franchise.
There was a lot of speculation on if the Raptors would discipline the All-Star for his actions.
The team benched former Raptor Pascal Siakam 1 game back in the 2019-20 season when he left the bench early in a similar situation after fouling out.
Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic addressed the incident that happened with Barnes.
Rajakovic said Barnes leaving the bench early was a misunderstanding. He said that Barnes thought there was a shot clock violation and the game was over. Rajakovic added that he spoke to Barnes in the morning and he told him that he needs to have better awareness as a leader. However, the team doesn’t feel discipline is required per TSN’s Josh Lewenberg.
Rajakovic went on to say that Barnes regrets his actions and is taking accountability via Lewenberg.
Barnes did address the incident as well via Lewenberg. He said “There were like 2-3 seconds left. I don’t know. I left the game early. Guess it was a bad look. Mistake on my part.”
Rajakovic stated that he and the coaches met with Barnes this morning and one of the things they talked about was Barnes channeling his emotions the right way during game via Lewenberg.
However, where the confusion lies is when Barnes was asked about the same meeting. “No, we didn’t have no conversation about that,” Barnes said via Lewenberg.
Rajakovic and Barnes say two different things
It seems like Rajakovic is claiming that he and the coaches talked to Barnes about channeling his emotions, but Barnes denied that happened.
This is not a good look for Rajakovic if he is simply making up a story here to cover up Barnes.
This might end up being another bad wrinkle in what has been a tough season for the Raptors.
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