NBA team fires announcer after incident

Matt Barnes on Kings studio show

NBC Sports California has parted ways with Matt Barnes as an analyst for their Sacramento Kings coverage just weeks after the former NBA player had an incident with a student announcer.

The Sacramento Bee was first to confirm the news, with an NBC Sports California spokesperson telling the publication Barnes will no longer appear on the network. Barnes was in his third season as a pre and postgame studio analyst for Kings broadcasts on NBC Sports California. News of his abrupt exodus comes just weeks after the former NBA player appeared to berate the student broadcaster during his son’s high school basketball game.

While attending the matchup between the Harvard-Westlake Wolverines and Crespi Carmelite Celts earlier this month, video surfaced of Barnes with his hand on the shoulder of a student announcer who was later identified by the Los Angeles Times as Jake Lancer. According to Lancer, as he informed the audience of a delay because Barnes was berating the refs, the former NBA player approached the broadcast table and threatened to “slap the s*** out of” him.

Barnes later appeared on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz and acknowledged yelling at the refs during the game, but alleged Lancer “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,” Barnes explained to Le Batard.

Barnes’ explanation, however, does not align with the clips from the broadcast that have been shared, which do not show Lancer attempting to engage with the former NBA player or saying anything offensive. Harvard-Westlake also supported Lancer, issuing a statement to praise “the poise he showed on [Feb. 2] under unusual circumstances.

While Barnes will no longer be featured on Kings broadcasts, his popular All The Smoke podcast with co-host Stephen Jackson recently partnered with Le Batard and Meadowlark Media. Barnes and former Showtime Sports executive Brian Dailey also announced the launch of their production company, All The Smoke Productions last week.

[The Sacramento Bee]