During a recent livestream on Twitch, Jaylen Brown ripped into ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith amid their escalating feud.
Smith recently responded to Brown alleging that NBA referees had an “agenda” against him during the Boston Celtics’ closing games in this NBA season against the Philadelphia 76ers. They shared a back-and-forth in which they both told each other to “stay quiet,” and now Brown is doubling down on his criticism of Smith.
“What type of journalism is this?” he said while reacting to a video of Smith suggesting that he should stop streaming. “Jayson Tatum hasn’t been on my stream, and this is what we’re talking about on First Take? What if JT just don’t being somewhere… in an uncontrolled environment.”
He suggested that he decided to start streaming so he could control his own narrative, and compared Smith to “a clown” during his reaction. He also continued to question why he highlighted that Tatum wasn’t on his stream but made an appearance on First Take. “What does that have to do with basketball?” he asked. “This is why, respectfully, a lot of people say, ‘Fuck Stephen A.”
Smith also took issue with Brown stating that this season was his favorite with the Celtics, suggesting that it shouldn’t be because Tatum was out with an injury for most of the season. “He just said I need to be quiet? For who?” said Brown. “Fuck Stephen A… Stephen A, Stephen B, Stephen C. My offer still stands. You want me to be quiet and stop streaming? I want you to be quiet and get off these networks, because you’re not using your platform to do real journalism.”
He alleged that Smith is only using his platform to generate “clickbait” rather than real journalism. “Tell this motherfucker to retire because he’s the face of clickbait media at this point and maybe with his retirement we can spark a movement to get the rest of these motherfuckers out of here,” he continued, per Fox News. He suggested that he wants to see more people in sports media with “actual integrity.”
Despite Tatum’s absence throughout most of the season, Brown still put in a respectable performance with the Celtics, averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists across 71 games.
