Matt Barnes became one of the most notable players of his generation not so much because of his skill, but rather his general way of carrying himself.
He was always extremely outspoken and fearless both on and off the court, and that permitted him to smoothly transition into a media career where he behaves much in the same way.
This past week, Fox Sports broadcaster Skip Bayless caused something of a stir with his comments about the Damar Hamlin situation. They were found to be so unsavory, in fact, that his show with Shannon Sharpe is now reportedly in jeopardy.
Whether ‘Undisputed’ ends or not, though – everyone seems to agree that Bayless is getting reckless with the way he is behaving and speaking about people.
This week Barnes spoke out on social media and revealed that he had actually saved Bayless from getting beat up by two NBA stars: one player and one coach.
Matt Barnes speaks on Skip bayless & Shannon sharpe pic.twitter.com/53pzpw57I2
— Shannonnn sharpes Burner (PARODY Account) (@shannonsharpeee) January 4, 2023
“First of all, Skip is a professional in this realm, [and] was highly respected,” Barnes said.
“When people say, ‘read the whole tweet,’ he said the game was ‘irrelevant.’ He knew he had to put that at the end of the bull***t he was saying hoping we didn’t see through the bull***t, because how he truly felt was his original first sentence.
“I just feel as of late he’s been very very, very disrespectful and out of pocket, and that’s normal, but he’s been that way to Shannon. I think Skip’s day is coming, and it may not be from a firing standpoint because you know white men in this profession can kinda get away with and do what they want.”
And then Barnes got to the juice – the two people who wanted to lay hands on Bayless over his words.
“I know personally that I’ve had to defuse two situations—one with a coach and one with an NBA player,” Barnes continued.
“They wanted to f**k Skip up. Personally, I’ve had to do it. One was this year, and one was last year. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, but I just see it’s just gone too far, in my opinion. And again, Shannon has had a lot of love or does have a lot of love for dude.
“But you can see Shannon’s fed up. And someone’s gonna end up hurting Skip, because his ego, his arrogance, his disrespect, has kind of always been on this level. But now I think it’s going to a new level.”
Given that Bayless has literally feuded with NBA players’ wives, it is certainly understandable that some in the league would want to lay him out.
Instead of talking about Skip Bayless, let’s talk about the Bills hero who saved Damar Hamlin’s life. https://t.co/rEmnY5xQOV
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 5, 2023
If anything, the really surprising thing here is that Barnes was the one to save him.
The next few months will be telling. Will Bayless take the hint and turn the temperature down on his hot takes? Or will he keep doing exactly what he has been doing up to this point?
One way or another, an answer should emerge soon enough.
Related: Bills Star Damar Hamlin’s 3-Word Question After Waking Up
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
