J.J. Barea is a great backup point guard. One of the best. His pull-up midrange jimbos are among the wettest in the league. It doesn’t even matter that he’s way shorter than the average NBA player, because his lack of height doesn’t seem to stop him from getting his shot off or seeing the right pass at the right time.
However, Barea’s short stature does drastically affect his life in one major way: if he were to get into a physical fight with Andrew Bynum, he would almost surely lose.
There’s just no way around it. If the two of them squared up and started throwing hands, Barea would not fare well at all. Barea’s only chance of survival would be to play dirty by stealing Bynum’s bowling ball and bashing him over the head with it. However, this tactic is also of limited utility given Barea’s sub-six-foot height, because the bashing technique works best when you are situated above your victim, not below him. It might be smarter to just throw the bowling ball at Bynum’s knees. Those are his weak point.
The danger of playing dirty in a fight against Bynum is that he is known to fight dirty as well. He would body-check you in midair without a second thought to your safety or well-being. Even if you smashed up his knees by chucking a bowling ball at them.
Luckily for Barea, Bynum is out of the league and isn’t usually found in the usual NBA player hangouts like arenas and practice facilities. So Barea can postpone their inevitable confrontation with some caution and planning.