Matt Barnes is cleaning up a mess left for him by his pal Gilbert Arenas.
While Barnes was seemingly overseas in recent weeks, his fellow Angeleno and retired NBA star-turned-podcaster, Arenas, aired out Barnes’ alleged dirty laundry on a livestream.
The rumor that Barnes paid tens of thousands of dollars to an AI model is apparently not true.
In an Instagram video post this week, Barnes denied any interaction with the virtual character and called out Arenas and “bottom-feeding blogs” for running with the information.
“I’ve sat back and watched the internet lie about me the whole year,” Barnes said. “Then I get back from Dubai … and all of a sudden I’m suing an AI model, or I got played by an AI model. And all these little bottom-feeding blogs pick it up. Shout out to the ones that are real and know the bullshit from the bullshit, or at least check. Some of you bottom of the barrel-a** motherf*ckers keep running the same garbage.”
The rumor about Barnes seems to trace back to Arenas’s livestreamed rant, with no backing from a news source. Arenas also appeared to be responding to commenters in the chat alleging Barnes’s affair with the AI-generated woman rather than an article or video reporting the story.
“I had a conversation with Gilbert. He addressed the bullsh*t, and it kind of caught fire from there,” Barnes added. “Someone I’m close with addresses the lie, and it catches fire. Y’all can’t believe everything you motherf*cking hear.”
However, as TMZ noted, Barnes — who is no stranger to controversy — previously confessed to paying off a different woman with whom he had an affair in 2023. In a video at the time explaining the situation, Barnes revealed that he never met the woman in person and that he paid her almost the same amount as Arenas mentioned in his viral rant.
This means Barnes’ denial is more about semantics. Some onlookers clearly jumped to conclusions about the original affair. After Arenas ran with it on his popular livestream, the story shifted to AI, prompting Barnes to release his denial.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.