The Celtics’ superstar Jaylen Brown has been openly beefing with Stephen A. Smith for quite some time now. Recently, he openly called the renowned ESPN voice “unethical” during a live conference that subsequently went viral on social media.
Jaylen Brown in Cannes at Sport Beach today speaking on the situation ❗️ pic.twitter.com/VroszzyV7c
— vic (@CountOnVic) June 24, 2026
On Thursday, June 25, Smith decided to clap back at Brown’s comments during his appearance on ESPN’s First Take.
“Oh god… I’m not going to go off. I was tempted to. Um, but it’s really pathetic, you know, and I don’t think it’s an accident that he went out of the country spewing that nonsense because we’re all tired of hearing from him here because he’s making absolutely positively no sense.”
“You know, Jaylen Brown has, I can’t believe what he has tried to make this into. You know, now the entire ESPN network is unethical. How are we unethical? What did we do to Jaylen Brown?” asked Smith.
Subsequently, Smith recalled how their feud began after the Celtics’ elimination from the 2026 NBA playoffs. Brown said this was his favorite season despite losing even after initially being up 3-1 in the first round to the 76ers.
Consequently, Brown faced a lot of backlash from the NBA media and decided to direct it at Stephen A. Smith, urging him to retire from the media. After taking multiple shots at him later, Brown did not even spare Smith’s employers, ESPN, during the Sports Beach Cannes event in France.
“This is after taking the Boston Celtics to six conference finals, two NBA Finals appearances, winning a championship, and a Finals MVP. This was also while Jayson Tatum was on the bench for over 60 games this year due to his Achilles tear before coming back and having to sit out again,” Smith continued.
“That’s what all of this is about, ladies and gentlemen. This ain’t about something else that happened. There’s nothing else that happened behind the scenes or anything like that. 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.”
“I understand what he articulated and what he came back and said and tried to explain equivocating the way that he did. I get it. I understand it. But Boston Celtics fans didn’t want to hear that. Basketball fans didn’t want to hear that. The reporters that cover it, by the way, not just this network, on all the other sports networks, radio, television, and podcasting.”
“Kendrick Perkins is a former Boston Celtic. He who obviously has relationships with a whole bunch of people in that organization presently and in the organization formally. And he’s not the only one. And all of them were saying the same thing. But Jaylen Brown wants to call out ESPN and me,” said Smith.
The ESPN analyst then showed a montage of all the compliments that he has given to Brown through the season on air and showcased how Brown might be being selective in terms of his memory of Smith’s scrutiny of his game.
We may not have seen the end of this public feud between this duo, which now also involves the media powerhouse, ESPN. I’m sure Smith is eager to see how Brown responds to his comments.
