Matt Barnes spits on his fiancee's ex-husband before Sunday's 49ers-Cowboys NFL playoff game

NBA bad boy Matt Barnes has been seen spitting on his fiancee's ex-husband in a heated quarrel at the Dallas Cowboys-San Francisco 49ers game, even though the 2017 NBA champion has claimed that he wasn't the instigator and was threatened.

The altercation between Barnes and David Patterson Jr., who was previously married to Anansa Sims - the daughter of former model Beverly Johnson - took place at 3.40 pm on Sunday prior to the Niners' 12-19 win at Levi's Stadium, according to TMZ.

Footage shows Barnes, an ex-NBA journeyman who last played for the Golden State Warriors, spitting on Patterson - a former NFL defensive tackle - though tensions boiled over afterwards when a group of fans had to separate the two men following an exchange of insults before both parting their own ways.

Barnes said that Patterson had been harassing him for a while, even 'hunted me down & aggressively confronted me,' according to an application for a temporary civil restraining order filed through the US District Court for the Central District of California, two days after the incident.