If Jaylen Brown really wants Stephen A. Smith to get back to hard-hitting journalism, then Stephen A. Smith believes Jaylen Brown should proceed with caution.

We’re two weeks and two rounds removed from Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics being part of the NBA Playoffs. But Brown has kept his name in the news by redirecting his competitive fire from the court to Stephen A. Smith.

After blowing a 3-1 lead to the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs, Brown blamed the referees for cutting his favorite season as a pro basketball player short. Smith heard Brown’s excuses and urged him to “be quiet.” Brown fired back by urging Smith to retire while accusing ESPN’s highest-paid talent of being “the face of clickbait media.” Brown also took issue with Smith questioning why Jayson Tatum hasn’t been on his Twitch stream, sparking a rant about journalistic integrity.

“What type of journalism is this?” Brown asked. “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.”

Monday morning on First Take, it was Smith’s turn to fire back by suggesting Brown should prefer this less journalistic type of media. Because Smith implied he could issue some more damning reports on Brown.

“Jaylen Brown, be careful what you wish for. You really want me to start reporting on that level? 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?” – Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/VUC5cn5klm

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 18, 2026

“Jaylen Brown, be careful what you wish for,” Smith said. “You really want me to start reporting on that level? 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 on Twitch trying to do what I do and talking about me needing to step away. It makes no sense.”

Threatening to expose a professional athlete is an interesting way of fighting the accusation of being a form of “clickbait media.” Smith has issued this same threat to Tiki Barber and other athletes he’s feuded with. But every time Smith says, ‘I’ll be a journalist if you want me to,’ it’s basically an admission that he is no longer a journalist.

And if Smith is going to report on how the city of Boston feels about Brown, he’s going to need to share a lot of praise. Because, in the wake of Smith threatening to expose the Celtics star, Boston fans, led by Dave Portnoy, were quick to rally around Brown, who helped the Celtics win a title.

Despite pleas from Brown, Smith isn’t going to retire anytime soon. But hopefully they can retire this back-and-forth. Because the last thing the NBA should want is for a trivial feud between Stephen A. Smith and Jaylen Brown to take anything away from their conference finals matchups.

The post Stephen A. Smith threatens to expose Jaylen Brown: ‘Careful what you wish for’ appeared first on Awful Announcing.

It’s been an eventful month of May for Boston Celtics superstar Jaylen Brown.

After leading their first-round series 3-1, the Celtics lost in seven games to the Philadelphia 76ers. Brown then went off on a Twitch stream about NBA officiating, claiming that NBA referees admit that there’s an agenda against him. The NBA fined Brown $50,000 for his comments, and he proceeded to double down on his criticism of NBA officiating.

Brown’s comments led to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith saying on First Take, “He needs to be quiet. Unless you’re trying to get traded.”

Additionally, Smith suggested that Celtics star Jayson Tatum was on First Take instead of Brown’s Twitch stream due to being frustrated by Brown’s comments.

Brown fired back on May 7 with a post on X: “I’ll ‘be quiet’ [or] stop streaming if you ‘be quiet’ and retire. Let’s give the people what they want.”

Fast-forward to Sunday night, and Brown had a whole lot more to say on his latest Twitch stream about Smith.

Brown played clips of Smith criticizing him in the May 7 edition of First Take and went off in his commentary, calling for Smith — “this motherf*cker” — to retire and referring to the ESPN personality as “the face of clickbait media.”

Jaylen Brown calls out Stephen A. Smith to retire from his job because he has no integrity

“Tell this mf to retire because hes the face of clickbait media maybe with his retirement we can spark a movement to have some type of integrity in order to hold themselves accountable” pic.twitter.com/LzKIhCnFLT

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod (@big_business_) May 18, 2026

“Tell this motherf*cker 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 motherf*ckers out of here. Or to also have some type of, forget journalistic integrity, actual integrity in order to hold themselves accountable to the bullsh*t 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.”

Brown also sounded off about Smith questioning why Tatum wasn’t on his Twitch stream.

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

“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 said after showing another clip of Smith. “This is him making his own opinion and formulizing it about what I have to say, on his platform. And this is why, respectfully, a lot of people say, ‘F*ck Stephen A.’ Because this is the type of stuff he does, and then he doesn’t recognize it.”

“F*ck Stephen A!” Brown added.

“My offer still stands,” Brown continued. “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.”

This is the kind of attention that doesn’t drive Smith away, but rather that he thrives on. He signed a new five-year, $100 million contract with ESPN last March, and with his ESPN role, his SiriusXM podcast, and his various hits on political programming these days, his media presence has only been increasing, for better or worse. And he’ll surely have a response to Brown’s latest rant.

The post Jaylen Brown calls for Stephen A. Smith to retire: ‘He’s the face of clickbait media’ appeared first on Awful Announcing.