After George Floyd was murdered at the hands of the police, protests erupted all around the country and now, protests are popping up all over the world. It is very clear that people have both seen and had enough. Lawmakers are already looking to make changes and it seems as though the thoughts of the people are being heard. While there is still plenty of progress to be made, positive changes are, indeed, coming.

Matt Barnes was always vocal during his time in the NBA and in his retirement, he has kept that same energy. Barnes always brings nuanced thoughts to these big societal topics, and he is also very well-connected within the league. During an appearance on Yahoo! Sports' Dunk Bait podcast, Barnes revealed that he has been talking to players on both Los Angeles NBA teams and there is this growing feeling that some players would rather not return amid all of the social unrest.

No matter how long a basketball player has averaged on the court, if their NBA team wins a championship, they’re being fitted for a ring. Throughout NBA history, some players have found themselves as the target of scrutiny for flaunting their championship rings when they weren’t instrumental in bringing home the trophy, but many have argued that teams both win together and lose together. Matt Barnes, however, goes by a different creed, and he recently admitted that he refuses to accept his 2017 championship ring.

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While on his All the Smoke podcast recently, Matt Barnes discussed his 2017 win with the Golden State Warriors—a win that he doesn’t count. “I came in when [Kevin Durant] went down, playing a consistent 20-25 minutes. The game KD comes back, I get hurt maybe a week before the playoffs and I’m out of it. Worst ankle sprain of my life. I’m not healthy until the end of the second round,” Barnes said. As a “vet,” he didn’t expect them to change the rotation. “I’m just going to sit here and be a super vet and cheer these motherf*ckers on. Talk to people when they need to be talked to and just enjoy the ride. We did win it…I don’t count that as a championship.”

Barnes added that his ring is sitting in the office of Raymond Ridder, the Golden State Warriors’ Vice President of Communications. “I got a free ride, I got a free ring…I don’t count myself as an NBA champ.” Watch the episode in its entirety below or catch Barnes’s commentary on his championship ring around the 1:09:00 mark.

The Roots told us, "Sometimes relationships get ill," and Matt Barnes can attest to that fact. He's not the only person to suffer a breakup, but as a basketball star, Barnes has often found his romances entangled in headlines. Basketball Wives fans watched as Barnes and his ex-wife Gloria Govan unraveled on the VH1 series, and after a lengthy relationship and three years of marriage, the pair broke up. Since that time, there have been struggles between the two as they co-parent twin boys, but it seems as if they're in a better place.

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Most recently, Matt and his ex-girlfriend Anansa Sims were trading insults online. They share a young son together and while it seemed as if they would make it for the long run, they decided to part ways. Thing got ugly as Matt took to social media to share his issues, but now he wants to apologize for his actions.

"Day by day trying to better myself," Barnes wrote in the caption to a video. "Private apologies don’t work for publicly disrespected. Peace • Love • Happiness @anansasims ??." In the clip, he said he was inspired by a video he saw that spoke about owning up to one's mistakes. He apologized to Anansa Sims for speaking about their personal business publicly "and when we hit a rocky point, flipping out on her out of emotion, out of hurt, out of anger, out of frustration... It was wrong for me to do."

He said he should have learned from the mistakes he made in previous relationships. Check out Matt Barnes delivering his public apology and explanation below.

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Private apologies don’t work for publicly disrespected. Peace • Love • Happiness @anansasims ??

A post shared by matt_barnes9 (@matt_barnes9) on Apr 23, 2020 at 11:06pm PDT

Speaking to Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson for their All The Smoke podcast, Lil Wayne revealed who his favorite players are in the National Basketball Association. He also touched on the current state of rap and his preferred spitters, including Young Dolph.

“All the homies, they just been super shocked. They love the way I love [Young] Dolph,” said Lil Wayne during his podcast appearance. Clearly very stoned, the words got stuck in Tunechi’s mouth for a minute but he ended up completing the sentence, praising one of Memphis’ finest. 

The leader of Paper Route Empire caught wind of the comments, bigging up his homie and officially crowning him as one of the greatest of all time.

Reposting the clip on his Instagram account, Young Dolph had this to say about Lil Wayne: “1 time for the Best Rapper Alive aka The Rap God @liltunechi.”

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He closes out the message by affirming that the new album he announced several weeks ago would finally be released soon.

“New project otw really really soon,” added Dolph.

Previously, Young Dolph claimed that the project was delayed because of the coronavirus outbreak but, now that he’s had a few weeks to get everything sorted out in his home studio, it looks to be ready to go.

Numerous hip-hop fans have been reflecting on the life of Nipsey Hussle as today is the one year anniversary of his tragic murder. He was shot and killed outside of his store in California and the hip-hop community is still looking for answers as to why it happened. Since his passing, numerous fans have created tributes in Hussle's honor and today, there has been an outpour of support. 

While those in the hip-hop community have been paying their respects, there are plenty of those in the sports world who have done the same thing. Kyrie Irving recently took to social media where he stated "I didn't know you personally Nip, but just know you inspired me beyond measure. Thank you." Russell Westbrook was one of the athletes who knew Nipsey and shared a message of his own on Twitter.

In October 2006, several members of the Indiana Pacers were involved in a chaotic altercation outside a strip club, during which Stephen Jackson was run over by a car and several gun shots were fired. If you don't recall that infamous incident, you can read the old ESPN report here, or you can just sit back and listen to Jackson's version of what went down on the latest episode of his and Matt Barnes' "All The Smoke" podcast.

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According to Jackson, he was just about to pull out of the parking lot at Club Rio when he saw Jamaal Tinsley being chased out of the building by a group of men that they had recently argued with. Naturally, Captain Jack grabbed his gun and came to his teammate aid. Says Jackson:

"By the time I get over there it's like we about to fight, so I hit one of them with my pistol. We get to fighting, more dudes come up out the club. I been in that position to many times - I know before I get surrounded and stomped out I'm gonna let off some warning shots. I let two off. By that time, I was running to my car. Somebody got in their car and sized me up in the parking lot and hit me going about 35-40 miles per hour - Boom! Knocked me in the air, I hit the ground... my face just hitting the ground, I stand up all my teeth gone, my lips' shattered."

Jackson went on to describe how he came to his senses after one of his teammates started shooting at the vehicle, and then Jackson, too, emptied his clip until he passed out. Again, this is happened just weeks before Jackson, Tinsley and the rest of the Pacers were preparing to kick off the 2006 NBA season.

Check out Jackson's recollection of events in the video embedded below.

His name may be mentioned in the media regularly, but Matt Barnes insists that he does his best to try and “lay low.” The former NBA star is known for his controversial statement, court cases with his ex Gloria Govan, or his public breakup with his most recent girlfriend Anansa Sims. Still, Matt told Hollywood Unlocked that he really is the type of person who wants to live his life on his own terms away from the spotlight.

After speaking at length about his friend Kobe Bryant, giving Kobe his last interview, and what being at the basketball icon’s Celebration of Life ceremony was like, Matt discussed his personal life. He shared that because his breakup with Gloria was “so public and nasty,” he wanted his split from Anansa to be quieter and more civil.

He and Anansa apparently went to college together and ran into each other years later. Matt says they were “irresponsible” and had unprotected sex, but he’s blessed to have their son. “We broke up at the end of December, but it didn’t really hit until the end of January,” Matt said. “I really didn’t want to ruffle the feathers.”

While there have been previous reports of Matt and Gloria being at odds, he states that they’re in a much better place currently. He hopes that one day he and Anansa can “be friends” and get back “on a regular schedule” with their son. Check out Matt Barnes’ full interview with Hollywood Unlocked below.

It’s another bit of relationship drama for Matt Barnes now that he’s split from Anansa Sims. The former couple were together for two years and welcomed their son, Ashton Joseph, into the world back in December 2018. Initially, reports stated that Matt and Anansa have decided that moving forward as co-parents outside of a romantic relationship would be best for them, but now that they’ve taken their grievances to social media, things have turned ugly.

Matt previously accused Anansa of keeping him from seeing Ashton, but she retorted that the accusation wasn’t true. She posted screenshots of an alleged conversation with Matt where she makes plans for them to see their son. Anansa also has three other children with former Atlanta Falcons player David Patterson.

“But one thing I’ll never figure out is, how you get $1,100 for three kids who are eight, seven, and five, and you want $15,000 for a 14-month-old,” Matt said in a video he shared online. He added that Anansa and her mother are making accusations about him because they believe it will help them get more money from the court.

“This is just a money play,” said Matt. “Just like the restraining order is a money play. She fears for her life. The fact of the matter is, we just didn’t work. I wasn’t happy. I tried to make it work, it didn’t work. So now, instead of being hurt and sad like she was at the beginning, her mom is in her ear so now she’s bitter and spiteful and ‘Let’s try to hurt this motherf*cker.'”

Scroll through below to see Matt also call Anansa out for posting fake photos on Instagram and allegedly offering to sell information about his family to the media.

Kevin Durant recently chopped it up with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on their “All the Smoke” podcast, as the trio discussed a range of topics including Durant’s time with Golden State, burner accounts, and his relationship with his former teammates. Barnes and Captain Jack also brought up the topic of marijuana in sports, and asked Durant where he stands on the matter. In short, KD is all for it.

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Durant explains:

“I just think it should be taken off the banned substance list. It shouldn’t even be a discussion nowadays. It’s just like, marijuana is marijuana. It’s not harmful to anybody. It can only help and enhance and do good things, you know. I feel like it shouldn’t even be a huge topic around it anymore.”

The two-time NBA Finals MVP noted how players around the league will routinely drink coffee, or wind down with a glass of wine or a drink, and thinks marijuana should be viewed in that same light. He adds with a smile, “It’s a plant that’s put here for a reason and it’s to all bring us together, man. Hopefully it happens, especially in the NBA.”

Check out his full thoughts in the IG video embedded below, and click here to see what Charles Barkley thinks of everybody’s favorite plant.

Kevin Durant and Kendrick Perkins have been embroiled in a bit of a beef recently. The two were teammates on the Oklahoma City Thunder although when Durant left OKC for Golden State, Perkins felt as though it was a weak move. In fact, Perkins recently said Russell Westbrook was a better thunder player than KD, which led to a bit of a spat on Twitter. Perkins has since apologized for the comments but now, KD is responding and he doesn’t seem to care for the apology.

While speaking on the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Durant said Perkins is simply looking for attention and just wants to up his profile as a broadcaster. Perkins has been known as a hot take artist these days and Durant thinks it is all apart of his plan to get some notoriety on television.

Per Durant Heavy.com:

“Russell [Westbrook] going back to Oklahoma City was a great thing, but you [Kendrick Perkins] knew you announcing saying I’m going to announce why Russell [Westbrook] is the greatest Thunder player ever you knew that was a divisive statement. You know people would say that’s a shot at [KD] like you know that. So, my whole thing is you don’t have to do that in order to praise Russell you have to S*** on me because that is what the fans and the media in Oklahoma City made their money off of the last four years is S***ing on me. So, Perk you are just playing into that because you want a job and some notoriety in your profession, but we were actually friends before this.  We actually played basketball games before this and I know your family, so why are you trying to use that tactic against one of your so-called brothers.  That was my whole thing and then he called me out on Twitter about us losing in the second round I’m like Perk, you are on the same team as me. And you started and you didn’t play well.”

With this latest interview in mind, it doesn’t seem like KD is too interested in peacing things up. Durant is known as a sensitive player and Perkins should have known his comments would strike a cord.