Former NBA star Matt Barnes says he can’t believe he has to clear the air on the latest rumor circulating the internet, but here he is … denying an A.I. model scammed him out of a ton of money.

The chatter spread like wildfire over the past few days … which stated the 14-year vet fell victim to a super-hot catfish who wound up with $61K of his hard-earned money.

His buddy Gilbert Arenas didn’t do him any favors by breathing more life into it on his own podcast … so now here he is, setting the record straight.

Barnes specifically called out blogs, which he called “bottom of the barrel ass motherf***ers,” for spreading the lies, and revealed he reached out to Arenas about his take on the fake news without even checking in with him first.

“I told him, ‘After all we’ve been through, bro, like tap in with me to see if it’s real.’ He apologized,” Barnes said.

Barnes added in the 2:30-minute clip that he’s really trying to focus on repairing his family. Remember, the 45-year-old revealed in April that he and his fiancée, Ananasa Sims, broke off their engagement, and she publicly called him out for infidelity. He took 100% of the blame.