Jaylen Brown slams ESPN, Stephen A. Smith in latest exchange of barbs
Jaylen Brown continued to voice his issues with ESPN and Stephen A. Smith, commenting on both during a recent event in France on Wednesday in a video posted on social media.
Brown said he took umbrage with the way ESPN covered his comments about this past Celtics season being his favorite out of 10 seasons in the NBA.
“The leader behind that was ESPN. ESPN is unethical,” Brown said. “Stephen A. Smith is the head face of that, but the organization, the players, they were all in agreement, they knew what I meant by that. Our team was basically all salary dumps. We lost a lot of players.”
The 27-second video is a clip of a longer interview at Cannes at Sport Beach. Brown had previously said throughout the season that this one was his favorite. However, after the Celtics blew a 3-1 series lead to the 76ers in the first round, Brown received pushback over the comments.
Smith and Brown have traded comments dating back to 2024, when Smith reported that an anonymous source said Brown’s “I’m better than you” attitude caused him to be disliked by some and affected his marketability.
The comments came in the aftermath of Brown being left off of the US men’s basketball team for the Olympics despite leading the Celtics to a championship and winning Finals MVP that year. Three Celtics teammates, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday, were picked over Brown.
Brown wore a t-shirt that read “State Your Source” to the Celtics’ championship parade. Smith later interviewed Brown on ESPN; Brown said his issue was with the use of anonymous sources, not Smith in particular.
However, Brown’s view of the situation appears to have changed recently after Smith told Brown to “be quiet” after his comments about the favorite season.
Brown said “[expletive] Stephen A.” during an episode of his Twitch stream. He also said that he’ll be quiet when Smith resigns from ESPN.
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“Jaylen Brown, be careful what you wish for,” Smith said in response. “Do you really want me to start reporting on that level?”
“Come on Stephen A, what are you, El Chapo?” Brown later said on his Twitch steam. “You running the media cartel, my boy? Talking about ‘be careful.’”
Other media personalities, such as FS1’s Nick Wright, called out Smith over the comments. Wright said that Smith should report the information he has instead of threatening Brown like a “mob boss.”
Smith recorded an episode of the “Stephen A. Smith show” addressing the situation. He wasn’t telling Brown to shut up and dribble, he said. He said his intention was to tell Brown that making such comments after the Celtics blew such a big lead against the 76ers was a bad idea. Smith did not mention Wright by name, but said whoever claimed he was acting like a mobster should be ashamed of themselves.
Recently, after Celtics’ bid to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo fell through, Smith made more comments about Brown. Boston’s trade package was centered around Brown and a pair of first round picks. Brown said the trade rumors were turning him into a monster by adding fuel to his fire.
“One of the things we’re not going to do, bro, is not going to let you sit around and act like you’re a victim,” Smith said during a recent episode of First Take. “We ain’t going to do that. We ain’t going to let Jaylen Brown get away with that. I heard what he said about people doubting him, creating a monster. Who did that this year?”
“We watched you carry a relatively no-name Boston Celtics squad to a No. 2 seed and 56 wins. We saw you do that,” Smith said. “We’ve given you nothing but praise. Where is all of this noise coming from about people doubting you? No, bro. That’s not what this is, because there is nothing about your game that anybody is saying.”
Brown finished sixth in the MVP voting and made his fifth All-Star team in six years. The trade rumors have persisted even after the Antetokounmpo trade fell through, with ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst saying that he expects teams to wage a bidding war to pry Brown away from the Celtics.
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