Former NBA Champ Matt Barnes Fired By NBC Sports After Viral Moment with High School Broadcaster
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Matt Barnes, whose 14-year NBA career included a stint with the 2017 NBA champion Golden State Warriors, will no longer be appearing on NBC Sports California.
Neither the network nor Barnes would explain the parting of the ways when contacted by the Sacramento Bee.
Barnes had been in his third year as an analyst for the Sacramento Kings.
In early February, Barnes was involved in a heated discussion with a student who was announcing his sons’ high school basketball game.
Video of the incident showed Barnes putting his hand on the shoulder of Harvard-Westlake student announcer Jake Lancer.
Former NBA and UCLA standout and ESPN NBA analyst and Crespi parent Matt Barnes offering some broadcasting tips to Harvard-Westlake’s excellent livestream student broadcaster Jake Lancer
LOL 😂 pic.twitter.com/RYZfca4M0e
— Jack Pollon (@pollonpreps) February 3, 2024
“He said, ‘What do you think you’re looking at?’” Lancer later said.
“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 spoke about the incident during “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,” he said.
“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 said.
Harvard-Westlake is proud of Jake Lancer and the poise he showed on Friday night under unusual circumstances. Jake’s calm demeanor and professional focus are unparalleled in high school journalism and we are honored he is our lead commentator on HWTV.
— Harvard-Westlake (@hwathletics) February 6, 2024
“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,” he said.
“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,” he said.
“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,” he said.
Lancer posted this on social media:
Last comment on the situation last night: 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.
— Jake Lancer (@jakelancer_) February 3, 2024
“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,” he said.
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