Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown has been regularly hosting Twitch livestreams in recent months, and some of his comments from his latest one on Monday have gone viral. While breaking down some game tape, Brown spoke about flopping being rewarded in today’s NBA.
“If you wanna be a great player, you gotta sell your soul,” Brown said. “You gotta be a flopper. If you wanna be an MVP, you wanna be top of the top, you gotta sell your soul and just be a flopper… Y’all want me to be on that? I can do it. I can start going to practice and like working on throwing my head [back]… As soon as somebody touch me, [I’ll shout], ‘Hey.'”
“If you wanna be a great player, you gotta sell your soul. You gotta be a flopper. If you wanna be an MVP, you wanna be top of the top, you gotta sell your soul and just be a flopper.“
– Jaylen Brown pic.twitter.com/Cc6foIuiBZ
— Riley ❄️ (@rileysbetter) December 9, 2025
Of course, reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has often been accused of flopping and foul-baiting over the last year or so. Those same accusations were leveled at 2023 MVP Joel Embiid as well.
A total of six players are averaging more than nine free throw attempts per game this season. Luka Doncic leads the way with 12.1 attempts per game, followed by Gilgeous-Alexander at 10.2, Zion Williamson at 10.1, Giannis Antetokounmpo at 9.8, Deni Avdija at 9.6, and Austin Reaves at 9.6.
For some context, only one player averaged more than nine a game last season: Antetokounmpo at 10.6. You’d prefer it to stay that way.
We are seeing an average of 24.8 free throw attempts per game in the NBA this season. That’s the highest mark since the league average was 24.9 in the 2007-08 campaign.
The NBA has to look into this problem. Players are going to keep flopping if they are rewarded for it, as they are looking to get every possible advantage on the court. It’s on the NBA and the officials to ensure they don’t get rewarded for it.
Getting back to Brown, you can’t really accuse him of flopping all that much. The 29-year-old gets his fair share of calls as a result, averaging 7.1 free-throw attempts per game, which ranks 17th in the NBA this season.
Three-time MVP Nikola Jokic is just a spot ahead of Brown with an average of 7.2 attempts per game. Jokic is among the MVP frontrunners yet again, so you don’t have to be a flopper to be in the mix.
Brown could find himself in the mix, too, if the Celtics keep winning. They have won five in a row to improve to 15-9 on the season, and the four-time All-Star is a big reason why they’ve done so well in Jayson Tatum’s absence.
Brown is averaging 29.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game in 2025-26. The 2024 Finals MVP has put the Celtics on his back and has silenced the critics who felt this team would fall apart without Tatum.
The Celtics will look to continue their winning ways when they take on the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum on Thursday at 8 PM ET.
