Boston Celtics
“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.”
Jaylen Brown continued his war of words with Stephen A. Smith on Sunday. AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
May 18, 2026 | 7:26 AM
4 minutes to read
Celtics star Jaylen Brown continued his war of words with longtime ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith on Sunday night.
After urging Smith to “be quiet” and “retire” earlier this month while on his Twitch live stream, Brown didn’t mince words on his latest stream while taking Smith to task over his blunt criticism of the Celtics forward since Boston’s 2025-26 season came to a close.
During Sunday’s stream, Brown played a clip from ESPN’s “First Take” on May 7, where Smith called out Brown for stating that the 2025-26 season was the favorite of his NBA career.
Note: Brown uses strong language in the video.
Celtics star Jaylen Brown goes OFF on Stephen A Smith for questioning why Jayson Tatum wasn’t on his stream and making his own narratives about why the 2025-2026 Celtics season was JB’s favorite 😳👀
“What type of journalism is this?… F*CK Stephen A… My offer still wants. You… pic.twitter.com/XAqaJ6YJYZ
— Slime🐍 (@ItsKingSlime) May 18, 2026
“Man, f— Stephen A. Stephen A, Stephen B, Stephen C,” Brown said after pausing the clip once Smith said that Brown needs to “be quiet.” “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’re not using your platform to do real journalism. You’re using your platform to use clickbait.”
Brown went through most of Smith’s segment from that May 7 episode of “First Take”, where Smith said that Brown needed to stop talking on these streams — considering that the NBA fined Brown $50,000 earlier this month for criticizing officiating in the playoffs.
“Unless you’re trying to get traded,” Smith added of the possible reasoning for Brown’s candid comments as of late.
Brown pushed back further on Sunday.
“Tell this mother—— to retire, because he’s the face of clickbait media,” Brown said. “And maybe with his retirement, we could spark a movement to get the rest of these mother——s out of here.
“Or to also have some type of, forget journalistic integrity, actual integrity in order to hold themselves accountable to the bull—- takes they put out with no basis, no bias, no information. Just narrative. Just for the sake of just pushing a weak narrative. Just purely out of that.”
Smith also suggested on his ESPN segment that fellow Celtics star Jayson Tatum was on “First Take” instead of Brown’s Twitch stream due to his apparent frustration with Brown’s recent comments.
As expected, Brown also pushed back against such an insinuation.
“What type of journalism is this?” Brown asked. “Jayson Tatum hasn’t been on my stream, and this is what we’re talking about on First Take? What if [Tatum] just don’t like being somewhere in an uncontrolled environment? Why are you doing journalism on me having guests on my stream? And this is a part of the reason why I started streaming. This is a part of the reason why people use the term ‘clown,’ and it synchronizes with someone like Stephen A. Smith. Because this is what you’re using your platform for. What are you talking about?”
“This is a narrative that he’s creating. This isn’t journalism,” Brown continued. “This is him making his own opinion and [formulating] it about what I have to say, on his platform. And this is why, respectfully, a lot of people say, ‘F— Stephen A.’ Because this is the type of stuff he does, and then he doesn’t recognize it.”
Smith initially called out Brown over his Twitch remarks shortly after Boston’s season ended — with Brown calling out NBA officiating, saying that Sixers star Joel Embiid flops too much, and stressing how much he enjoyed the 2025-26 season, even if it ended with a first-round exit at the hands of the Sixers.
“[Flopping] is not why the Boston Celtics lost,” Smith said earlier this month. “The Boston Celtics lost because they lived and died with the three, because they played dumb basketball down the stretch. … They just launched three after three after three and missed six or seven straight threes in the last two minutes [of Game 7].
“They blew this opportunity. They were up 3-1, and you lost. This is not the time to be talking about Joel Embiid flopping — damn sure not [the time] to do a show, a podcast show, or video show about it.”
Brown later went on a Twitch stream to clarify and add context to some of his original comments — especially ones regarding his affinity for this past season.
10 minutes of Jaylen Brown addressing his recent comments:
“I hate that our president of basketball operations even had to respond to this. Me and Brad have a great relationship. I love Boston. If it was up to me I could play in Boston for the next 10 years.”
“We fought… pic.twitter.com/CfF9ufxG1P
— Celtics on CLNS (@CelticsCLNS) May 7, 2026
“I mean, we blew a 3-1 lead, and yeah — we lost in the first round. We didn’t win a championship. But the amount of growth, the expectations that these same [critics] have for us, is why this was my favorite year, because I got to see it in practice. … The expectations were for this team was to fail,” Brown said on May 6 about this past season. “The expectations was the team [would] be nothing, just to give in to and to quit. And this team did the exact opposite. We fought every single day. We fought for everything.
“I’m not making no excuses,” Brown added. “Obviously, the result — we’re not satisfied with the result. … But to fight and maneuver through adversity and grow and galvanize with a bunch of guys and have that mindset and approach, this was my favorite year. I wouldn’t say by far. By far would be a stretch, because obviously, winning the championship is great, but I’m telling y’all, this was my favorite season.”
Given Brown’s latest comments, don’t be surprised if Smith continues these back-and-forth salvos of retorts on Monday morning when “First Take” airs once again.
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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