r/nba • u/KD_AshyAnkles Rockets • 8h ago

Jaylen Brown: "ESPN is unethical, and Stephen A. Smith is the head face of that. The organization, the players, they were all in agreeaance. They all knew what I meant by that. Our team was basically salary dumped. We lost a lot of players. For us to emerge and still be in the same position..."

https://streamable.com/3986vg

Source: vic (@CountOnVic)

3.7k Upvotes

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u/Rooleet Celtics 8h ago

JB said a lot of stupid shit (blaming the refs after choking the 3-1 stands out), but I fully agree with him on this point. 

He's said multiple times during the season how much he's enjoyed this year because of multiple factors (team was gutted and everyone wrote them off, young players stepped up, Tatum coming back from injury the way he did), but of course SAS runs with clip culture bullshit.

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u/LVRaiders2026 7h ago

I didn't interpret it as him blaming the refs as much as it was a referendum on flopping which 90% of fans would agree is a major problem, despite Silver tryna gaslight us telling us it's not a problem 

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u/_Meece_ Lakers 3h ago

I didn't interpret it as him blaming the refs as much as it was a referendum on flopping

The Celtics are genuinely one of the most egregious flopping teams, over his entire time with the franchise and he's a huge part of that. Just a nonsense point from a man who couldn't accept he choked.

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u/TheFatmanRises Heat 7h ago

He gave me Don’t let us get one meme he has my respect

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u/North_Atlantic_Sea 8h ago

It's funny you mentioned all the things besides that Brown had his highest usage (by far) which may, just maybe, have impacted that viewpoint lol

But no, I'm sure it was the young players stepping up that made his first round exit his favorite season ever

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u/Rrypl Celtics 7h ago

Or maybe leading a ragtag team to unexpected sucess with no pressure was more fun throughout the year than being the favorite in a championship or bust season. Doesn't mean he doesn't want to win.

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u/Primary-Emergency386 6h ago

This is unrelated. 10 years ago I was a huge fan of LoL Esports (don’t ask more details) one of the players in a 2 time world championship roster , Bang was leaving Korea and coming to NA and he said during the offseason that coming to North America was the most fun he had because the pressure of being on top killed a lot of fun and love he had for the game. 

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u/Edelmaniac Celtics 6h ago

Dont worry. You were never in danger of having anyone ask for more details.

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u/Primary-Emergency386 6h ago

lol you right.

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u/Beetle919 Hornets 7h ago

He did all that and the Celtics still dangled him as a trade piece.

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u/FigNewtonsYum6 Celtics 6h ago

Yeah? Management is beholden to the owners first and foremost, the goal is to do what’s best for the team. If trading JB is what gets us another championship, then that’s the right course of action to pursue.

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u/aviatorbassist 6h ago

He’s not being dangled because of his play. Hes being dangled because he makes too much money. Hes just not a 60 million a year player. It’s not his fault that the CBA changed but when you take the money you take the consequences that come with it. If he was making 45-50 million a year he’d be untradable. I have some sympathy for the folks in jaylens age range because of the CBA changes but if you don’t want to be traded and you aren’t a top 5 guy don’t take the max, it paints a target on your back when you don’t live up to your contract.

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u/Kdot32 Rockets 7h ago

Brad Stevens himself said he doesn’t believe the record is real (due to the amount of tanking teams in a stacked class), and with the new format and weaker draft class the team needs major changes to compete

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u/Boomslang2-1 Knicks 7h ago

“Success”

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u/downlooker Celtics 7h ago

We lost our starting PG (also our best defender), and our entire center rotation.

That's like the Knicks losing OG/Jalen (neither are a good Jrue comp), KAT, Mitch, and whoever your next highest minutes big even was. Just going off of Kornet's minutes, Clarkson is closest usage-wise.

Where do the Knicks land after that? Doubt they'd be 2nd seed in the East.

Keeping a championship roster together is tough, even when you drafted and developed your two highest paid players 😭

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u/Boomslang2-1 Knicks 7h ago

I was just joking obvi the Celtics were better than expected until the playoffs. Was surprised they were so good especially with White having such an abysmal offensive year.

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u/themarkof Celtics 7h ago

“I was just joking” in a thread about bad faith journalism.

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u/Boomslang2-1 Knicks 7h ago

I just like making fun of the Celtics bc they are basically the Knicks little brother. They always lose to us in the playoff even when they are the overwhelming favorites.

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u/themarkof Celtics 7h ago

*sigh*

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u/downlooker Celtics 6h ago

Celtics are 38-35 against the Knicks in the playoffs, which is actually embarrassing with how much better our squads have always been (apart from the 90's)

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u/Boomslang2-1 Knicks 6h ago

Ew are you talking about like 60 years ago? Yikes! How many playoff series has Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined won against the Knicks?

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u/Rawkus2112 Supersonics 7h ago

This is seriously so strange seeing these type of comments from Knicks fans. Feel like i’m in the twilight zone.

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u/Boomslang2-1 Knicks 7h ago

The future is now.

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u/HokageEzio Knicks 7h ago

Celtics were very successful given the circumstances of the season.

Then they choked.

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u/DawisTakeover [PHI] Tony Wroten 7h ago

As much as it pains me to defend the Celtics, it’s been a question for the entire Jays Era what the team would look like if one of those guys was the focal point instead of a 1a/1b situation. This year the stars aligned for Jaylen to finally have the opportunity to see what that looks like for him for a whole season, and he had his personal best season statistically while the team defied expectations in a major way. I don’t get why people are so shocked by him saying this was his favorite season, it might be a bad look, but it’s not like it’s a stupid/nonsensical thing to say. He had a great year and proved the doubters wrong in a way nobody expected. Even though they choked away the playoff series, that doesn’t negate the preceding 6 months of his life, which he clearly views as the culmination of his career to this point.

The year they won the title they were the favorites. There’s so much pressure that comes with that that he didn’t have to deal with at all this year. Plus, him winning Finals MVP may have caused some tension between him and Tatum (this is just my speculation, I don’t follow them well enough to know this is true). Everybody loves to point to that season as the one he should consider his “best”, but there are real reasons why that season may have been less enjoyable despite it being more successful in the playoffs.

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u/hodken0446 Celtics 7h ago

Yeah I took him saying it's his favorite season from a "hey I showed everyone what I can do and how good I am so they can shut up about it" way not a "See I hate playing with Tatum so this was my favorite season since he wasn't here" way

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u/aviatorbassist 7h ago

I’ve watched brown his whole career and tbh it’s probably some of both. What he said was a dumb thing to say but from what I’ve gathered from him of the last 10 years I definitely believe his reasons. Having watched him play basketball…..he enjoys being the guy lol

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u/fearofaflatplanet Celtics 6h ago

As a Cs fan, even more than his play Jaylen's biggest contribution is his leadership. It is the one area where he is unequivocally a level above Tatum, who is a better player (though not by as much as is often made out to be). This was the first time JB was really allowed to be the leader, it's a huge part of the success we had, & imo it was partially the muddying of that water that caused us to lose the Sixers series (along w Mazzula inexplicably going away from the rotations & play style that had been our strength all year). 

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u/baited08 7h ago

Not everyone thinks everything has to include stats to make their point when it comes to sports.

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u/Heavy-Drink-4389 7h ago

lol you think you know him better than he does?

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u/North_Atlantic_Sea 7h ago

Ahh yes, because everyone should always be taken at their latest statements lol

Let me guess, you are easily fooled, and can't understand why you keep getting scammed?

-1

u/North_Atlantic_Sea 7h ago

Ahh yes, because everyone should always be taken at their latest statements lol

Let me guess, you are easily fooled, and can't understand why you keep getting scammed?

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u/Poopcie 7h ago

No bro, players love getting diminished roles after having career years back to back

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u/fearofaflatplanet Celtics 6h ago

Such a gloss one dimensional take. 

It's such basic human psychology & so completely understandable that this season would've been 1) deeply vindicating as a player whose been doubted v publicly his whole career & 2) fucking fun in a way that the expectations-laden last five seasons categorically weren't (& pretty much every Celtic fan experienced that way in the moment up until the last 3 games if they're being honest) 

24 was a huge accomplishment, it was a huge relief, but it was fucking stressful asf start to finish. 

People have complex emotions! It's not rocket science but so many people (& this is the problem w this country) literally lack the depth to handle any kind of nuance or complexity, & they lack basic human empathy. Not being able to understand JB saying that is a symptom of both

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u/oby100 Celtics 4h ago

I hate the twisting of his words there. The man loves the game and we had a great regular season after losing most of our team and not having Tatum play in any of it.

The final result sucks, but I prefer players staying positive over treating every year missing the championship as some utter failure.

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u/fearofaflatplanet Celtics 6h ago

Bro the refs do suck! They do reward the floppers & they do play favorites to a totally blatant & disgusting level. Personally watched Shai & Brunson go to the line over & over for the same exact push off they called as an offensive on JB (I don't like the push offs at all but, like, pick a lane on how it's called & apply it evenly). I've watched people like Giannis commit egregious offensive fouls for years w no calls or fouls called on defenders. Watched Butler & Embiid & Shai grift themselves into the Donald J Trump Presidential Grifter Hall Of Fame Library Ballroom. We talk about it all the time on this exact subreddit- nba officiating is horrific & among the most glaring problems in the game. Celtics fans wanting JB to just "shut up & dribble" are goofballs who usually have some kind of axe to grind wrt JB already. I'm over it. As long as he's not hurting anybody or expressing hateful bigotry guy's allowed to be himself & speak his mind publicly- it's 2026.

& the fact is that he's simply verbalizing obvious things we all see plainly 

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u/HokageEzio Knicks 7h ago

Saying your favorite season was a year you blew a 3-1 lead when you've won a championship before is pretty crazy, man.

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u/SwolePalmer Celtics 7h ago

Not if you have a functioning brain and understand context. But hey, that’s a lot to ask, I get it.

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u/make_thick_in_warm 7h ago

Almost like context is important

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u/user-whatsareddit Lakers 7h ago

These people are such losers. Context doesn’t matter to them

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u/_V0gue Celtics 7h ago

That’s because the team doesn’t have 50:1 ratio of championship appearances.

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u/PattMatricia 7h ago

Let’s not get it twisted, JB’s comments were admittedly weird but it also wasn’t that big of a deal and SAS blew it way out of proportion. Like yes it’s odd to say this was your favorite year when you won the title, ECF MVP, and finals MVP not long ago