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The Celtics earned the right to dunk on their haters and doubters by beating the Mavericks in the NBA Finals, and Jaylen Brown decided to use the championship parade to get some petty revenge on Stephen A. Smith over a First Take segment that rubbed him the wrong way.
The Boston Celtics were the best team in the NBA during the regular season and didn’t really have much trouble dispatching the competition over the course of a dominant playoff run where they lost a grand total of three games while racking up the 16 victories they needed to secure the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Jaylen Brown ultimately walked away with Finals MVP honors after averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 5 assists per game and making life as miserable as possible for Luka Doncic during Boston’s gentlemen’s sweep of Dallas, and he didn’t waste any time taking a victory lap at the expense of the critics who didn’t think the Celtics had what it take to secure their 18th championship.
On Friday, Brown got the chance to bask in the glory that comes with earning a spot on the duck boats that have paraded through the streets of Boston 13 times since the Patriots kicked off the tradition in the wake of their Super Bowl victory in 2002, and it was hard not to appreciate the “STATE YOUR SOURCE” shirt he was rocking when he rolled up to the festivities with his MVP trophy in tow.
Jaylen Brown has arrived for the parade. Don’t think he has put the MVP trophy down. 🏆😎 pic.twitter.com/KE2f4qn74Z
— The Camera Guys (@NBCSCameraGuys) June 21, 2024
For the uninitiated, the shirt in question is firing a shot at Stephen A. Smith, who Brown previously called out in May for reading a text from an unnamed NBA source who asserted “he’s just not liked because of his ‘I Am Better Than You’ attitude'” on an episode of First Take.
I can’t help but respect that level of pettiness.