Even ESPN’s ex-employee took exception to Jaylen Brown’s recent jab. The ongoing friction between Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown and the NBA media took another dramatic turn when Stephen A. Smith responded to the “unethical” tag from the All-Star. As this feud gets more bitter, Smith’s former colleague, Shannon Sharpe, dropped a blunt reality check. Not on his friend. His message is intended for Jaylen Brown.
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Speaking on Nightcap alongside Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson and former Celtics player, Joe “Iso Joe” Johnson, Sharpe fiercely defended his former First Take co-host as well as the NBA media. Sharpe argued that Brown is completely misdirecting his anger toward media platforms rather than addressing the internal source of his frustration.
“This is the problem that I have. JB gets mad at Stephen A., JB gets mad at places like Nightcap and others. Get mad at the Boston Celtics.”
“You can’t get mad at organizations for covering you being brought up. Because guess what? You arrived in Boston one year before Jayson Tatum. Jayson Tatum’s name has never come up in a trade when Boston were trying to acquire someone. Your name has come up and everybody gets mad at Stephen A. People get mad at us for discussing it”.
Sharpe insisted repeatedly that Celtics are pitting Brown and Tatum against each other through the persistent trade rumors and it’s not an invention of the media.
“Get mad at Boston for keep putting your damn name in trade discussions wanting to get off of you,” Sharpe continued. “It’s not our fault that Boston Celtics organization view Jayson Tatum more favorably than they view you. Every parent, and don’t let them lie to you, have a favorite. Jayson Tatum is the Boston Celtics’ favorite… Y’all need to get mad at Brad Stevens. Y’all need to get mad at the Boston Celtics organization for continuously putting this man in trade discussions. Not at us for discussing it.”
Just this week, Jaylen Brown was dubbed a key piece in a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade idea. Giannis went to Miami in a straight swap, but Brown is still being linked to trade rumors. Yet Celtics’ president of basketball operations, Brad Stevens tried to counter those rumors.
“Jaylen Brown is a big part of us,” Stevens said on Tuesday (June 23). “I’m never going to predict the future. Every indication, everything I think about, over the last few years, has been building around those guys. You never know. But at the same time, the one thing I want to make very clear is how valued he’s always been. He’s been amazing. He’s been an amazing teammate and a great person to be around.”
Yet as he said it, Shams Charania reported that the Celtics front office is in active talks with other teams about trading Brown. But in a case of shooting the messenger, Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe are the ones engaging Brown.
Stephen A. Smith and Jaylen Brown’s feud turns even Shannon Sharpe’s stance
The escalating feud between Jaylen Brown and Stephen A. Smith reached a boiling point after Smith called out Brown for calling this past season his “favorite year.” This season, the Celtics emerged as a top-2 seed in the East despite Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury. But most, including Smith, wouldn’t call it a perfect season.
Smith previously went as far as telling Brown to “be quiet” and “go on vacation” unless he was actively angling for a trade from Boston.
In response, while at the Sport Beach event in Cannes, France, Brown slammed Smith and ESPN, declaring:
“The leader behind that was ESPN. ESPN is unethical, and Stephen A. Smith is the head face of that.”
That was Smith’s last straw, and he clapped back on his show, Straight Shooter, on his X page and on ESPN, challenging Brown to come on his show for a face-to-face confrontation.
In a very long rant, he said something similar to Sharpe.
“This is about a grown a– man acting like a child because he doesn’t like the fact that he went on the airwaves and spewed to the world that going home in the first round was his favorite season.”
SAS even said that many in the Celtics organization, the community and even former Celtics champion, Kendrick Perkins, were talking about Brown’s trade possibilities.
But he only singled out Smith as the “face of clickbait media.”
Throughout the escalating feud, Shannon Sharpe has advocated for both to have a proper conversation and bury the hatchet.
This time, even Unc has taken Brown’s ‘unethical’ label personally. He’s changed his stance to a brutal truth bomb.
“The Boston Celtics say we feel Jayson Tatum is better, we have this piece that is valuable, and we’re willing to trade Jaylen Brown to acquire more,” Sharpe noted. “That is not conjecture, not innuendo, that is not speculation. That is facts.”
However, this feud shows no signs of dying down. Unless Brown listens to Sharpe and actually has a head-on collision with Smith.
