The Boston Celtics‘ 2025-26 season ended on May 2, but Jaylen Brown continues to be in the headlines. Brown has gotten into quite a war of words with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, and this all began after the Philadelphia 76ers came back from down 3-1 to eliminate the Celtics in seven games in the first round of the playoffs.
Despite the early exit, Brown claimed this season was his favorite on his Twitch stream a day after Game 7. That didn’t go down too well with Smith, and it appears some Celtics legends weren’t happy to hear that either. Kendrick Perkins shared some messages he had received from fellow former Celtics on First Take on Monday.
“I get another text that said, ‘Hey, JB trippin’,'” Perkins said. “Another text from a former player that played with the Celtics, ‘JB, lack of accountability.’ And then I went to X because it’s one of my favorite social media platforms. And during that time, JB, I think it was maybe the same day or the next day, he had put out and said that him and [Kevin Garnett] was going live at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.
“And then all of a sudden it got pushed back to 7:30 p.m. Eastern,” Perkins continued. “Now, he ended up going live, but I didn’t see Kevin Garnett. You know why I’m bringing up these points, it’s because JB, guess what? It’s a lot of people in the organization, it’s a lot of former players, legends that don’t agree with you, bro. They don’t agree with you. They don’t like the way that this look.
“And what you said and how you said it during that time, it didn’t make it look good,” Perkins added.
Now, a player, who has won a championship, saying a season where his team blew a 3-1 lead and didn’t even win a playoff series is his favorite was always going to raise eyebrows. What made it worse in this case was that Brown’s co-star, Jayson Tatum, had missed the majority of the campaign as he was recovering from a torn Achilles tendon.
Smith pointed out all of this on First Take back then and told Brown, who averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game in 2025-26, to keep quiet. The five-time All-Star fired a shot in response, claiming he’d keep quiet if the analyst did so as well by retiring.
Sticking to Tatum and Brown, Smith also pointed out that the former had appeared on First Take, but not on the latter’s streams. He was suggesting there are real issues between them. Brown reacted to that specific comment recently by ripping Smith for not using his platform for real journalism. The 29-year-old also called him the face of clickbait media.
Perkins pointed out, though, that what Smith said remains true.
“Everybody already got speculations about him and Jayson Tatum relationship,” Perkins said. “Oh, and by the way, we still haven’t seen Jayson Tatum on your Twitch yet. He still haven’t made an appearance. So, we wasn’t lying… I got to tell him what’s real. You blew a 3-1 lead. We’re talking about basketball. We’re talking about a duo that could play together for years to come.
“And you, leaving off of that series, saying that that was your favorite season wasn’t something that needed to be said publicly,” Perkins added. “I just think it caused friction… This instance, I can’t rock with you, JB. And guess what? It’s a lot of former players and former Celtic players that’s not rocking with you either, dog.”
The Celtics are all about championships. Their 18 titles are the most in NBA history, and you would imagine that a player talking about this kind of season being their favorite wouldn’t have sat well, as is, with former players. Add in the Tatum factor, and it is possible that some of them are looking at Brown sideways.
The way to win them over would be for Brown, who finished sixth in MVP voting, to ball out next season and bring that 19th championship to Boston.
