Ex-NBA star Matt Barnes dropped his legal battle with his fiancée Anasa Sims’ ex-husband — months after he spit on the man during a verbal altercation, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Barnes failed to show up to a court hearing this week where he was set to argue for a permanent restraining order against Sims’ ex David Patterson Jr.
Back in January, Barnes and Patterson got into a heated confrontation at a Cowboys vs. 49ers football game.
Barnes claimed Patterson approached him and started threatening him. He said Sims’ ex even shoved him at one point. In a video from the event, Barnes could be seen spitting on Patterson.
Bystanders separated the two and the situation did not turn violent. Days later, Barnes asked the court to grant him a restraining order claiming Patterson was the aggressor.
The ex-NBA star said Patterson, “hunted me down and aggressively confronted me.”
He said Patterson screamed curse words at him and called him name. At one point, he said Sim’s ex had the crowd shouting Barnes name all at once.
Barnes claimed that Patterson, “shoved me, and I was forced to push him off of me.”
“I did not want the altercation to physically escalate further, and out of frustration with him seeking me out and his unrelenting repeated harassment I spit in his direction in disgust,” he added.
Sources said police were called to the scene and Barnes was listed as the suspect. In court documents, Barnes said Patterson was “jealous of my relationship with his ex-wife.”
A judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Patterson from coming within 100 yards of the ex-NBA star. However, the order has now been dissolved due to Barnes not showing up to court this week.
For her part, Sims spoke out in defense of her fiancé. She said, “David has said in text message recently that he was going to end Matt’s podcast and ESPN career, so when I learned about the altercation at Levi stadium, I knew David was trying to bait Matt into hitting him. My ex-husband had just sent police officers to our home days before that game on false scheduled visit claims. It’s public knowledge that Matt is a huge 69ers fan, and David knew Matt would be at the game.”