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Former NBA star Matt Barnes is pushing back on rumors that claimed he was scammed by an AI model. A rumor circulating around the internet got fresh air from another former NBAer, Gilbert Arenas, who addressed the gossip on his own podcast. Apparently, as the internet says, Barnes fell victim to a catfish who managed to walk off with $61,000 of his money. 'I've sat back and watched the internet lie about me the whole year,' Barnes said in a video posted to his Instagram account. 'The whole year -- lies from me being gay, to me talking abortion to me telling some girl not to do a reality show.' '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?!'
Pablo Torre : So I checked in with Malik's parents, Michael and Deena. (They are lovely.) They now understand what happened. And Malik has deleted the above IG video. I also talked to @ClutchPoints. Which apologized and quickly corrected the post (see below). Now: how was this mistake made? I suspect that AI was used to scrape my episode's transcript, and it generated that erroneous summary. (You may recall my frustration with this from the Mark Cuban debates.) Because anyone who listened knows I never reported that. But I do admit I may be responsible, in part because this week, before all this, @pablofindsout hired an actual witch to curse AI. Quote: "AI needs to slip up so badly that everyone can see that this is a bad investment." I am now worried that this is a Monkey's Paw scenario.
Before the game, a fan gave Jordan Poole a signed Allen Iverson autograph. He said AI was his favorite player. Could Jordan Poole be an Iverson-type player for this team, maybe with better defense? Zion: First off, I’m going to give respect to AI—the Answer, a legend in the game. Me and Poole have talked about it. I’m pretty sure he has a tattoo of Allen Iverson—just out of respect. He definitely looks up to him, studies film. I think with the Iverson cuts we can set up for Poole, he can really take advantage. And I’ll say this—social media has kind of portrayed an image of him, but when you get around him, he’s a dog. He’s a competitor. He’s a good dude to be around. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I’m glad he’s on this team with us.
The creators of an AI tool and Discord community that allowed people to create AI videos of NBA stars says that it got a cease-and-desist letter from lawyers representing LeBron James. This marks one of the first known times that a high-profile celebrity has threatened legal action against an AI company for enabling the creation of nonconsensual AI imagery of their likeness. It is also one of the first times we’ve seen a celebrity take legal action against a type of nonconsensual but not strictly sexual type of AI-generated content, which is rampant on Instagram and other social media.
The NBA has invested in predictive analytics company nVenue through its venture vehicle, NBA Equity, with the league’s Head of Gaming and New Business Ventures, Scott Kaufman-Ross, joining as a board observer for the AI-powered startup. A graduate of the NBA Launchpad program earlier this year, nVenue is also launching a new collection of basketball micro-betting markets that will be licensed to sportsbooks.
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“I didn’t build Reebok all by myself,” said O’Neal, who won three straight NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers and another with the Miami Heat. He signed with Reebok in 1992 and made the brand popular with his first signature shoe, called the Shaq Attaq. Iverson’s signature shoes, The Question and The Answer, were some of the top sellers in the industry. He signed a lifetime endorsement and marketing contract with Reebok in 2001. “I needed A.I. to be vice president because if you’re a guard, you want to see a legendary guard,” he said. “I wanted to do a show that’s not scripted. Not polished. I wanted it to be real work.”
Marc J. Spears: A “surprised” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle on Tom Thibodeaux’s firing from New York: “Thibs went in and changed so much. You look at all that and what happened yesterday, I thought (the news) was a fake AI thing. No way possible. I know how the players feel about him, too.”
That reverence for greatness extended to another generational star: Allen Iverson. “To me, one of the BEST players that I’ve ever played with,” Kukoc said. “Just his size and the way he moved through the people he looked even faster… AI was different. If he could find a way to the rim, that was his first choice… AI was willing to go in and try to score layups and then get dunks and then get himself on the free throw line.”
The Rockets are partnering with artificial intelligence firm Theta Labs on a new AI agent called “ClutchBot,” which will be integrated into the team’s official website beginning with the 2025-26 NBA season. The bot will be trained specifically on Rockets and NBA data, enabling it to answer queries about anything from team news or statistics to ticketing and venue information. Theta and the Rockets call it a “mascot,” because it is named after the Rockets real-life mascot, Clutch the Rocket Bear.
Pablo Torre Finds Out: 76ers president Daryl Morey says he asks A.I. for input when making team decisions. "We absolutely use models as a vote in any decision."
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Local businessman Shawn Granberry, who hosted Friday's event at Oakstop, connected Brown and Trevor Parham, an Oakland activist who founded Oakstop in the spirit of what Xchange became roughly one decade before Brown's idea. They merged the two to form the Oakland leg of Xchange and have worked together since to form the business district that will serve as an incubator for development. Brown stressed utilizing A.I. to streamline processes, make business formation more accessible and formulate marketing strategies. "Our building at 1721 Broadway has three levels," Parham said. "On those three levels, we have a mix of spaces that are used to for training and events, and they also have office spaces and open co-working spaces, and what we plan to do is we also plan to renovate that building with a whole bunch of new offices that can serve that incubator function. So the overall idea is that you have a building that simultaneously houses nonprofits that can provide education and learning to organizations and individuals, but then you also have office spaces that can house those folks that are building those businesses."
Dwayne Bacon: My top five scores of all time? It’s gotta be Jordan. Michael Jordan number one. Kevin Durant. Kobe Bryant, for sure… That’s tough. I know them three is like the back of my hand, but of all time? Q. Is James Harden up there? DB: Things he was doing in Houston was like never done… To me bro I gotta go with Kyrie Irving. Kyrie is a better scorer than Allen Iverson. And I love AI’s game.
StatMuse: Donovan Mitchell scored 89 points in Game 6 and 7. That's 2nd-most all-time, behind AI's 90 points in the 2001 ECF. pic.twitter.com/zyORZu1tAp
How did you become a Sixers fan? Kyle Lowry: My mom. My brother. Everybody was a Sixers fan for sure. They loved Dr. J [Julius Erving], Armen Gilliam, Charles Barkley. I was a Dana Barros fan. It goes back a while. You had to watch them on [sports cable channel] PRISM. Only Philadelphia people know what that is. I was watching as many games as I could, NBC games, whenever. They never really was on NBC because they were never good for a while. But every chance I got to watch I would. Who was your biggest basketball influence? Kyle Lowry: A.I. was one of my biggest basketball influences. For sure my brother. But in the NBA, of course we all liked Michael Jordan back then.