Imagine this: 6’8″ Matt Barnes, known for his fiery NBA career, battling it out on the football field as a receiver. Sounds unusual, right? It’s rare to see NFL players over 6’6″, but Barnes, a high school football star, once believed he could “make a splash” in the NFL. So why didn’t he? As Barnes was juggling football and basketball, an unexpected call steered him toward the NBA. Yet, that wasn’t the only reason he stepped off the gridiron.

The 2017 NBA champion recently appeared on The Rich Eisen Show and shared the real story behind his decision. He explained that transitioning from basketball to football might be tough, but the reverse is even harder. For Barnes, it was all about longevity. “I’m thinking I’m 6’8. And I was thinking what just, what I said across that middle, they probably tear me up. You know, I’m only 215 at the time,” Barnes said.

It’s also worth mentioning that taller athletes have certain disadvantages, like being an easier target for a chop-down, in football. And Barnes understood that very early.

“Although I felt like I could have made the NFL and made a splash, I don’t think I would have had the longevity and probably the free movement and no pain that I have at 44 when I decided to play in the NBA,” he revealed in the podcast.

At that time, there weren’t many players like him in the NFL. Barnes recalled only one other 6’7″ receiver in the league, Eagles legend Harold Carmichael. Most NFL receivers, like Tony Gonzalez, stood around 6’4″. Barnes realized that while his height gave him an edge, it also posed challenges in a league dominated by shorter, faster players. Interestingly, he’s echoed this sentiment before.

During a chat with Colorado Buffaloes’ head coach Deion Sanders, Barnes said, “I just didn’t see at the time nobody 6’8” doing it… I just didn’t really see it.” Still, football was his first love. Appearing on All Facts No Brakes earlier this year, Barnes confessed, “If I would have kept football first, I definitely could have made the NFL.” But one phone call changed everything, and the rest, as they say, is history.

One call sent Matt Barnes from the field to the court

Back in 2006, Matt Barnes was seriously considering switching from basketball to football. “I was on the verge of trying to jump into the NFL,” Barnes shared during a 2020 chat with Warriors broadcaster Bob Fitzgerald. He was spending his summers working out for both sports, admitting that basketball wasn’t quite hitting the mark for him at that time. It seemed like the NFL would be his next step. Then, that summer, everything changed.

Barnes was in Sacramento when his friend Baron Davis reached out. “Hey, we’re gonna have an open run at the facility in Oakland. If you’re not doing nothing, come down,” Davis told him. With no plans in place, Barnes jumped in his car for the hour-and-a-half drive, just for a casual run. Little did he know that call would change his career.

As Barnes was playing, he didn’t realize Warriors coach Don Nelson had been watching from the office upstairs. “We finished playing, he comes down, tells me I played well (and asks) where I’m going to camp,” Barnes recalled. At that moment, Barnes had no plans for basketball camp, but that conversation sparked a new opportunity.

“He told me, ‘I can’t promise you anything… but if you play like you did today, I’ll give you a chance.'” That was all Barnes needed to hear. For the first time, a coach showed a real belief in him, and from that moment on, his path was set.