Jaylen Brown Accuses Stephen A. Smith of ‘Clickbait’ Journalism in Heated Response

Jaylen Brown’s latest comments followed the social media post from Brown. Reacting to a First Take video featuring Smith saying that Brown should be “quiet” unless he wanted to be traded.

“What type of journalism is this?… F*** Stephen A, Stephen B, Stephen C… My offer still stands. You want me to be quiet and stop streaming? Well, I want you to be quiet and get off these networks because you are not using your platform to do real journalism. You’re using your platform to do clickbait,” Brown added.

This is just the latest development in their beef. Stephen A. and Brown have exchanged jabs at one another since the Celtics’ season ended. 

The history of Jaylen Brown and Stephen A. Smith’s beef

The start of the beef between Jaylen Brown and the ESPN analyst goes back to the day the Celtics lost the first-round series to the Philadelphia 76ers. A day after being eliminated, Brown went on his Twitch livestream and slammed the officials, alongside calling out Joel Embiid for flopping. 

The NBA later fined him $50,000 for his comments. However, Brown stood by his stance, and that’s when Stephen A. Smith entered the conversation. 

Addressing Brown’s comments, Smith said that he took issue with Brown calling this season his best season when Tatum wasn’t in the lineup. Aside from highlighting that the Celtics lost the series despite having a 3-1 lead, Smith questioned why Jayson Tatum hadn’t come on his livestream. He asked Brown to ‘be quiet’ unless he wanted a trade. 

Since then, Brown has asked Smith to retire from the media and make way for real journalism. Smith responded to Brown with a long message, doubling down on his attack on the historic series loss.

“Bro, I got love for you so I’m not going to even go there,” Smith wrote. “Folks are looking out for you, and you don’t even realize it. Here you are making this kind of noise, and it hasn’t even been a week since you lost a 3-1 lead. You’re HOME. A champion and a Finals MVP saying his favorite season is the season he’s home in the FIRST ROUND. This is not about ME. It’s about YOU….and what YOU SAID. Enjoy your offseason.”

Interestingly, this is not the first time that Brown and Smith have been beefing. A few years ago, Smith said that a lot of people in the NBA didn’t like. Days later, Brown wore a t-shirt featuring “Reveal your source.”