Matt Barnes reached a breaking point with the rumors swirling around his name. The former NBA forward jumped on Instagram to clear the air, telling fans that he never lost money to an AI model on a dating app and never filed a lawsuit about it, PEOPLE reports. The story spread fast online, but Barnes wanted everyone to know that none of it came from him.

Before addressing the rumor directly, Barnes said he “hit rock bottom” this year and dealt with real problems, but a claim that he paid an online phantom “sixty one thousand dollars” never made his list of struggles.

He walked through the wild stories pushed about him, telling fans the chatter ranged from “me being gay” to returning from Dubai only to discover blogs saying, “I’m suing an AI model.” Barnes fired off at sites that ran with the claims without checking anything, saying they “keep running the same garbage” and developed an entire fake scenario that never existed.

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Barnes calls out Gilbert Arenas for adding fuel

Barnes paused mid video to smoke, then circled back to Gilbert Arenas’ role in how the rumor grew. Arenas mentioned the claim on his show, which pushed it further into the spotlight. Their personal ties run deep. They played together in Golden State and Memphis, and their families connect through past relationships. So Barnes expected more from someone that close.

He said he called Arenas and told him that after everything they went through together, he should have “tapped in” to see whether the rumor had any truth. According to Barnes, Arenas apologized and admitted he didn’t think the situation had reached that level.

Barnes urged fans to stop falling for online noise. He explained that he navigated heavy personal challenges while strangers ran with lies. He ended the video with a final message for supporters, saying, “When the hate don’t work, they gotta start lying. But y’all don’t have to believe them.”