Former NBA player, Matt Barnes has addressed a bizarre and widely circulated rumor claiming he had been scammed out of thousands of dollars by an AI-generated Instagram model and was now suing.
Barnes emphatically denied the story, making it clear that the claims are completely false.
Barnes started by expressing his frustration with the continuous stream of false stories about him throughout the year.
“I’ve sat back and watched the internet lie about me the whole year,” he began. “The whole year. Lies from me being gay, to me talking abortion to me telling some girl not to do a reality show.”
He then specifically targeted the AI story: “I get back from Dubai … I see all of a sudden I’m suing an A.I. model, or I got played by an A.I. model… You guys believe I got played by an A.I. model, and I’m suing ’em? Where the f*** did you guys get this from?!”
Barnes went on to criticize those responsible for spreading the misinformation, referring to them as “bottom of the barrel ass motherf***ers.”
In the same post, Barnes noted that he is currently focused on healing his family. This effort follows the breakup with his ex-fiancée, Anansa Sims, who ended their engagement after publicly accusing him of cheating.
Barnes had previously opened up about the situation during an appearance on the All the Smoke podcast, accepting responsibility for the loss of his family.
“Through my actions, I literally just lost my family… I wasn’t there emotionally, I wasn’t empathetic,” he explained at the time. “I wasn’t willing to share those emotions.”
Sims quickly responded to his public statement with a pointed message, demanding that he stop sharing what she called “half-truths.”
“If you’re going to talk publicly about our personal business, tell the whole story,” she wrote.
“Don’t post half-truths about me and our past relationship to gain sympathy from the masses… You’ve made no effort to emotionally support all of our children through this traumatic transition you caused, but you’re willing to be ‘vulnerable’ for strangers on the gram for profit? Please keep my name out of your mouth.”
