Former NBA star Matt Barnes has been an analyst for the Sacramento Kings on NBC Sports activities California since 2021 however reportedly misplaced the gig on account of an incident at his sons’ highschool basketball recreation.
On Feb. 2, Barnes’ twin sons, who play for Crespi High School, had been taking part in a street recreation towards Harvard-Westlake when one of many Barnes brothers was known as for a technical foul.
Barnes, 43, yelled at officers, then went to the announcers’ desk, the place he put his fingers on Jake Lancer, the Harvard-Westlake scholar broadcasting the sport.
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Matt Barnes attends a recreation between New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces July 6, 2022, at vivint.SmartHome Area in Salt Lake Metropolis. (Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE by way of Getty Photographs)
Lancer advised a contract reporter that Barnes threatened to slap him, in keeping with The Sacramento Bee.
That incident price Barnes his analyst position, the paper reported, citing an NBC Sports activities California spokesperson.
“I’ve yelled at the refs my entire college career, my 15-year NBA career. I coach AAU in the summertime, I have high school boys and I have a 5-year-old coming down the pipeline. So, I’m going to be doing a lot of yelling at the refs,” Barnes mentioned on the Feb. 13 version of “The Dan LeBatard Show.”
“This particular incident — I will say my one mistake was putting my hand on [Lancer’s] shoulder. A lot of people want to say I grabbed this kid, or I did this. I literally put my hand on this kid’s shoulder because it was almost like I was talking to my son.
Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder ahead Jeff Inexperienced, left, knocks the ball away from Phoenix Suns ahead Matt Barnes within the first quarter throughout a recreation in Oklahoma Metropolis, Okla., Nov. 25, 2008. (REUTERS/Invoice Waugh )
“He advised me to sit down my a– down. I used to be identical to, ‘Why do you feel comfortable to be able to tell a grown man to sit his a– down?’ So, he and I had a bit backwards and forwards and, clearly, admitting my faults to even contact him was unsuitable of me. … However I simply didn’t just like the disrespect that got here with the entitlement the place they felt like they may say something to me.”
Lancer gave another explanation of his version of the encounter.
“Final touch upon the scenario final night time: I need to make it very clear that I by no means advised him to ‘shut up’ or something near that, he got here as much as me,” he wrote on X. “All I wished to do within the second was get again to saying the championship recreation.”
Matt Barnes addresses the media throughout 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend Feb. 15, 2020, at Wintrust Area in Chicago. (Tyler Kaufman/NBAE by way of Getty Photographs)
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Barnes performed 14 NBA seasons, successful a title with the Golden State Warriors in 2017.
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