OT: Matt Barnes removed from Sacramento Kings TV broadcast lineup

[Robin Miller]

https://news.yahoo.com/matt-barnes-removed-sacramento-kings-222146164.html


Sacramento Bee

Matt Barnes removed from Sacramento Kings TV broadcast lineup on NBC
Sports California

Jason Anderson
Tue, February 20, 2024 at 5:21 PM ET


NBC Sports California’s pregame and postgame shows will be missing a
familiar face when the Kings return from the All-Star break to play the
San Antonio Spurs on Thursday at Golden 1 Center.

An NBC Sports California spokesperson told The Sacramento Bee Matt
Barnes will no longer be appearing on the network. Barnes, a Sacramento
native who twice played for the Kings during his 14-year NBA career,
declined to comment Tuesday when contacted by The Bee.

Barnes, 43, was in his third season as a studio analyst at NBC Sports
California after joining the Kings broadcast team in 2021. The change
comes weeks after Barnes was seen yelling at officials and confronting a
student play-by-play announcer at his sons’ high school basketball game
in Los Angeles.

Barnes attended the game between Crespi Carmelite and Harvard-Westlake.
The Los Angeles Times reported Barnes engaged Harvard-Westlake student
announcer Jake Lancer during the school’s live stream broadcast after
one of his sons was whistled for a technical foul.

Video posted to social media showed Barnes putting his right hand on
Lancer’s shoulder before other adults intervened. Barnes allegedly
threatened to slap Lancer.

“He said, ‘What do you think you’re looking at?’” Lancer told freelance
sports reporter Jack Pollon. “And I said, ‘You’re screaming you’re a
(expletive) to the refs mid game while I’m trying to announce, don’t
touch me,’ and then he said, ‘I’ll slap the s--- out of you.’”

Barnes discussed the incident during a recent appearance on “The Dan Le
Batard Show with Stugotz.”

“I was yelling at the refs, Dan. I’ve yelled at the refs my entire
college career, my 15-year NBA career,” Barnes said. “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 (the student broadcaster’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.

“He told me to sit my a-- down. I was just like, ‘Why do you feel
comfortable to be able to tell a grown man to sit his a-- down?’ So he
and I had a little back and forth, and obviously, admitting my faults to
even touch him was wrong of me. But I want to make clear that the
narrative of me as some guy that beats up people, I want people to know
I didn’t body slam this kid. I didn’t choke slam him. I didn’t do any of
the sort. I literally put my hand on his shoulder like I was talking to
one of my sons. And, again, 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.”

Lancer denied saying anything disrespectful to Barnes following the
incident, tweeting: “I want to make it very clear that I never told him
to ‘shut up’ or anything close to that, he came up to me. All I wanted
to do in the moment was get back to announcing the championship game.”

Barnes starred at Del Campo High School and UCLA before he was selected
with the 46th overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft. He played for nine
teams during his NBA career, including the Los Angeles Clippers, Los
Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors and Kings. He retired after
winning an NBA championship with the Warriors in 2017.

The Street recently reported Barnes and Brian Dailey, a former Showtime
Sports programming executive, are launching a production company, All
the Smoke Productions (ATSP). The company is named after the “All the
Smoke” podcast, which Barnes popularized alongside another former NBA
player, Stephen Jackson.

All the Smoke Productions is reportedly bringing in other former NBA
players and analysts, including former Kings DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon
Rondo, Paul Pierce and Rachel Nichols.

Barnes shared that news via social media Tuesday, tweeting: “Cheers to
New Beginnings.”