Jaylen Brown doesn’t appear to trust Stephen A. Smith’s sources.
“It’s not so much that he’s underrated, it’s just that he’s not liked because of his I-am-better-than attitude,” Smith explained of Brown on First Take last week, reading a text message on the show from what the ESPN host described as an “NBA source.”
“He knows it,” Smith continued, reading the text message. “‘It’s the same reason that he is not as marketable as he should be,’ that’s what an NBA source just sent me.”
Brown replied back to the clip of Smith reading the text messages on X, writing, “State your source.”
NBA legend and Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas also responded on X to Smith.
“I have been a friend, mentor and advisor to @FCHWPO since he was a student at UC Berkeley he is 100 percent marketable and before you slander his name @stephenasmith tell your source to put their name on it or don’t speak on it. Let it be known.”
This isn’t the first time that Brown’s reputation has been called into question, either.
In 2016, during the lead up to the NBA draft, Brown, who made the rare decision of entering the draft without an agent, was called “too smart for the league” by another nameless NBA executive via Andscape.
Thomas was entrusted as a mentor to Brown during this time, instead of hiring an agent.
“I am who I am. Take it or leave it,” Brown said after the report came out. “I’m not going to change my values and change my approach because someone feels uncomfortable. I am not going to be disrespectful or step on any toes. But I am going to be me.”
Brown was said to be taking a graduate school-level class as a freshman at Cal, according to multiple reports at the time.
“It’s not malicious,” the Andscape report continued. “He just wants to know what is going on. Old-school coaches don’t want guys that question stuff.”
Brown challeneged that report two years later when asked about it at the Rising Stars Challenge.
“What is the so-called mold of a basketball player?” Brown contested in Feb. 2018, via Boston.com. “I challenge whoever has the ideal or the ideology of a ‘so-called basketball player,’ I challenge them to come out and say what that is.”
Brown has challenged these anonymous sources for years, but all of it has remained nameless.
He’s been extremely successful since then, as the second leading scorer for Boston coming in at 24.7 points per game and having them on the brink of the team’s second NBA Finals berth in his career.
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