Matt Barnes shares why he got into the media and started 'All The Smoke'

Since Matt Barnes retired from the NBA following the 2017 NBAFinals, he's engulfed himself in a very impressive media career.He's spent time as a panelist on ESPN's "The Jump," but morenotably hosts his own podcast "All The Smoke" alongside former NBAplayer Stephen Jackson.

Barnes joined our own "The Rematch" with Etan Thomasto talk about his life after basketball. The pair discussed anumber of topics, including his off-court endeavors, hisinvolvement on social-justice issues and, of course, what his lifeis like now that he's part of the media.

After being in the NBA for 14 seasons, it's been a nice secondcareer for Barnes.

“As athletes, we always thought there was some sort of motive.There was a handful of people that you kind of trusted, but for themost part, you had to watch yourself with the media,” Barnes said."That’s something Jack and I are trying to change, obviously. We’veexperienced pretty much everything that our guests have experiencedand that gives us an easier intro and a different approach [tointerviews], which allows most of our guests to really let theirwall down and feel comfortable speaking to us.”

Of course, just like when he was on the court, Barnes is goingto have people who aren't fans of the work that he's doing. Whenasked how he responds to the hate, he shrugged it off.

“I just smile, you know what I mean? Because the hatred wassimilar to what I got when I played, and you know that you’re nevergoing to be able to make everyone happy,” Barnes told Thomas. “Butmy whole goal with ‘All The Smoke’ was to humanize our guest. Restin peace Kobe, but you know Kobe’s greatness; you know [thegreatness of] KG, Steph, KD. You know what all these guys are greatfor, but I wanted to be able to strip that down and show how thatprocess came about -- what turns they made or what obstacles theyovercame to become as great as they are at their craft. I thinkbecause of myself and Jack’s track record -- obviously a spottedtrack record, to say the least -- but [we've] always been real.We’ve got into some trouble, we’ve owned up to it, and if we neededto apologize, we apologized. But we just always handled ourselvesin the realest type way.

"So, I think when we get our guests, they understand that we’renot here for clickbait, we’re not here to start trouble. We reallyjust want to be able to have an in-depth conversation. And it wasnever a situation where I just wanted to put a mic in someone’sface; I don’t want that type of interview. I want it to be akickback atmosphere like we’re at the house medicating or having adrink and just having a good conversation and I think that’s whatwe’ve been able to do because of the realness that Jack and Ialways approached life with and the game with. People respect thatand they feel like they can be comfortable with us.

"I forgot the guy’s name, Phil something from the New York Postthat just wrote a horrible articleabout meand Jack. Like,horrible. I’m just like, ‘You’re mad because you’vebeen in this space for 30-plus years and, at the time, we hadn’teven done 'All The Smoke' for a year but our resume already farexceeded anything he's ever done.’ To me, how I used that[criticism] for fuel as a player, I use that for fuel as media now.It’s crazy that we call ourselves media now. Because I neverthought [I'd be doing this]. 'Me, media?!' You know what I mean? But I like seeingpeople like me, you, the Knuckleheads and all of these other formerplayers that are in this space. We’ve always allowed other peopleto tell our stories. We’ve always just been the talent. [It’salways been], ‘You go score touchdowns or dunk or shoot threes orhit home runs or run [for] world records in track and let thesewhite people tell our stories.’

"But we’re intelligent enough and can hold a conversation longenough and paint a picture well enough now to tell our own story.And again, that’s a little bit of that power slippage that they’restarting to see from mainstream media where they’re like, ‘What arethese athletes doing, coming in here and doing our job? And in somecases, doing our job better.’”

You can watch the full episode of "The Rematch" below.

This article was initially published on Basketball News onFeb. 11, 2021.