Jaylen Brown Calls for Stephen A. Smith's Retirement After Escalating Feud

Since the Boston Celtics' season ended more than two weeks ago, superstar Jaylen Brown has been very vocal on social media and during his Twitch streams, expressing frustration with NBA officiating as well as the sports media, particularly Stephen A. Smith.

Smith took issue with Brown calling the 2025-26 campaign his "best season," despite not having Jayson Tatum for much of the year and the Celtics losing in the first round after winning a championship two seasons ago, a Finals run in which Brown earned NBA Finals MVP honors.

Smith also suggested Brown should stop streaming and said Boston should explore trading him for Giannis Antetokounmpo this offseason.

Now, days after those remarks, Brown has responded again by calling Smith "the face of clickbait media" and even urging him to retire.

"Tell this [expletive] to retire because he’s the face of clickbait media," Brown said. "Maybe with his retirement we can spark a movement to have some type of integrity in order to hold themselves accountable."

"Man, [expletive] Stephen A. Stephen A, Stephen B, Stephen C," Brown added. "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."

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Brown was especially bothered by Smith attempting to question his relationship with Tatum, specifically asking why Tatum had never appeared on Brown's stream.

"That last statement took the cake," Brown said. "Like, you're talking about JT coming on my stream. What did that have to do with anything? It's the same conversation we had before. You're supposed to be doing journalism. You're supposed to be talking about the game and sports - my performance. Cool. We blew a 3-1 lead. I understand, I can take accountability for that. That's fine.

"But when you start bringing this other stuff up, and you don't see how that line is getting crossed, when you talk about other people's families, and you talk about other people's character, and you talk about other people's personal lives, etc., and you cross that line, and you don't think somebody gonna cross that line back? Boy, you crazy as hell."

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This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 10:50 AM.