Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown and ESPN talking head Stephen A. Smith have been beefing off and on for years. So that’s nothing new. However, the feud got ramped up a few notches by a rant Brown went off on during a recent Twitch livestream.
It all got started up again when Smith recently made a negative comment about Jaylen Brown on First Take. Smith claimed that Jayson Tatum’s appearance on Smith’s show, and not on Brown’s, somehow signified a rift in the teammates’ relationship.
Brown responded to the comment by going off on Stephen A. Smith, saying the ESPN host doesn’t use his “platform to do real journalism” and instead uses it “to do clickbait.”
Stephen A. Smith responds to Jaylen Brown’s Twitch rant
“Jaylen Brown be careful what you wish for. You really want me to start reporting on that level?” Stephen A. Smith asked during Monday’s episode of First Take. “You understand? Locker room, how the organization might think about you, how the city may feel about you, how Jayson Tatum may or may not feel about you, sneaker deals, endorsement deals, the list goes on and on. The season is over bro. You’re on Twitch trying to do what I do”
“He’s targeting me and he’s basically saying that I’m supposed to be using my platform to report, etc., etc., but I’m not doing that,” Smith responded again on his Straight Shooter show.
“There’s a lot of things that I could say about Jaylen Brown, about how people think about Jaylen Brown, how people feel about Jaylen Brown, just like he could say it about me. But the thing about it is number one, I’m not going to get personal. Number two, I’m not going to do it cuz I got love for the brother and I got respect for him and I believe in him. But he evidently has selective amnesia.”
Stephen A. Smith then went on to provide a lengthy list of times that he supported Jaylen Brown, and Brown had no problem with his reporting.
When he was about done with his second, almost 25-minute, response to Jaylen Brown, Stephen A. Smith told him, “If you don’t understand or want to embrace the sincerity with which I’m saying what I’m saying, and instead you want to engage in your level of negativity and insults and all of that stuff, be my guest. It doesn’t faze me. I’m not going to respond again to all of this stuff.”
We will see about that.