NBA Champion Matt Barnes claimed he hasn’t cried in 30 years in an emotional podcast episode.
Barnes, 45, enjoyed a 14-year-NBA career and won a title with the Golden State Warriors in the 2016-17 season, his final year.
But in a new episode of his All the Smoke podcast, Barnes spoke about his turbulent childhood, in which he grew up ‘biracial, [with a] black dad, Italian mom, drugs, abuse, alcohol, violence.’
His mother also passed away when he was 27 and in the beginning stages of his NBA career.
‘And I haven’t cried… I’m starting to feel it now. I feel like I’m almost pouring from an empty cup,’ he said.
Barnes estimated that the last time he cried was when he was around 10 years old, after he ‘got his a** whooped.’
NBA Champion Matt Barnes said in an emotional podcast that he hasn’t cried in 30 years
Barnes won the 2016-17 NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors in his last season
The former NBA small forward, who recently split with fiancée Anansa Sims, said he was ‘always taking care of everybody’ throughout his playing career and struggled to express his emotions to his now ex-partner.
‘Through my actions, I literally just lost my family… I wasn’t there emotionally, I wasn’t empathetic,’ he said.
‘Trying to dig back and understand, and I started counseling that, like you said, little Matt, from back then is still hurt – and still trying to find his way. Although grown Matt feels like he has it all, little Matt is there more than I realize,’ he continued.
Barnes said that crying as a man was a ‘refreshing’ and ‘good’ thing to do but still asked his podcast guest, Jason Wilson, how he could get there himself.
‘How do you cry? I don’t want to say I don’t know how to cry because I have cried before, but I haven’t cried in probably 30 years.’
In January, Barnes was accused by Sims – whom he had been with since 2018 – in a social media post of cheating on her with eight different women.
He was previously engaged to Anansa Sims, who accused him of cheating on her with eight different women
The couple had been together since 2018 and were engaged in December 2022
And after his latest podcast episode, she sounded off on her ex about sharing ‘half-truths’ in public.
‘If you’re going to talk publicly about our personal business, tell the whole story,’ she wrote in a now-deleted Instagram story, per the Shade Room.
‘Don’t post half-truths about me and our past relationship to gain sympathy from the masses. I’m in the trenches doing the hard work making sure all of our kids are ok.’
She continued, ‘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.
‘If you want to do some good, please don’t talk about me, go get consistent therapy and most important start building a relationship with God,’ she finished the statement.
The ex-couple shares two children together, while both have kids from previous marriages as well.
