Friday, February 23, 2024

Sacramento Kings Fire Matt Barnes for Yelling at Student Announcer


Retired NBA player Matt Barnes caused a scene at his twin son's high school basketball game after storming the scorers table and screaming at a student announcer [click here if you missed that].

Now Matt's aggressive behavior has cost him his job as studio analyst with the Sacramento Kings....

Former UCLA and NBA forward Matt Barnes was reportedly dropped as a Sacramento Kings studio analyst by NBC Sports California nearly three weeks after he yelled at officials and confronted a student broadcaster from Studio City’s Harvard-Westlake School during a high school boys’ basketball game at Encino Crespi.
Barnes, 43, became irate after an official called a technical foul on one of his twin sons, who play for Crespi. Video posted to social media shows Barnes putting his right hand on the shoulder of Harvard-Westlake student Jake Lancer, who was broadcasting the game. Barnes and Lancer exchanged words before adults intervened.
The Sacramento Bee reported that Barnes no longer will serve as a Kings analyst, a job he’d held for three years. Barnes played 14 seasons in the NBA, including two with the Lakers, four with the Clippers and nearly two with the Kings. He played at UCLA from 1998-2002.
Barnes addressed the confrontation during an appearance Feb. 13 on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.”
“I was yelling at the refs, Dan,” he told Le Batard. “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.
“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. ... So he and I had a little back and forth, and obviously ... for touching him, I was wrong. But I just didn’t like the disrespect that came with the entitlement where they felt like they could say anything to me.”

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I posted this on here yesterday.

R in NYC said...

Oh well. He can guest host on Undisputed.

Anonymous said...

He’s unhinged

Anonymous said...

He’s always been ignorant

No Chiraq said...

Yuk

Anonymous said...

Matt seems fatal and I wouldn't be shocked if we woke up one morning to him being a tragic news headline. He's too old to still behave like a 22 year old. Grow up!

Anonymous said...

I’m sorry but that is what the kid needed. It gets worse when he’s older. Matt was breaking him in. He must have cried like a baby for them to fire Matt! Ridiculous!

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