Matt Barnes Out as Analyst for Sacramento Kings

February 22, 2024

*Former NBA player Matt Barnes is out as an analyst for the Sacramento Kings television after he had an incident with a student announcer.

The move comes weeks after Barnes confronted a student play-by-play announcer at a high school basketball game in Los Angeles, Awful Announcing reports.

The incident occurred while Barnes attended his son’s game with Crespi Carmelite in a match-up against Harvard-Westlake. Barnes was upset when his son was hit with a technical foul and yelled at the referees. A viral video shows him walking to the scorer’s table and putting his hand on the shoulder of a student announcer, Jake Lancer.

Lancer said he was announcing a delay due to Barnes cursing out the refs, and that’s when Matt threatened to “slap the s*** out of” him.

On X/Twitter, user @jpoliva626 wrote, “What you all are failing to report is Barnes going up to our broadcaster, a high school senior, grabbing his shoulder while questioning what he’s saying on the livestream after he calls the ref a B**** multiple times because his son got a tech.”

Shut ur ass up. I was talking to the ref not you or that kid that decided to say some slick shit. Don’t let that privileged HW shit go to your head. Idgaf who your son is

— Matt Barnes (@Matt_Barnes22) February 3, 2024

Barnes responded to a separate critic on X, writing, “Shut ur ass up. I was talking to the ref not you or that kid that decided to say some slick shit. Don’t let that privileged HW shit go to your head. Idgaf who your son is.”

Barnes also addressed the incident when he appeared on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. He claims 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.

Hear more from Barnes about the incident in the clip below.