Jaylen Brown calls ESPN ‘unethical,’ takes another shot at Stephen A. Smith

The public feud between ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown is showing no signs of slowing down, with Brown again publicly calling out Smith and his employer.

Brown made the comments during the annual Cannes Lions powwow in France. He was responding to criticism from Smith after referring to the 2025-26 season as “his favorite” despite star Jayson Tatum missing most of the season and the Celtics being on the wrong side of an early playoff exit.

“ESPN is unethical, and Stephen A. Smith is the head face of that, but the organization (and) the players, they were all in agreeance,” Brown said. “They all knew what I meant by that. Our team was basically salary dumped. We lost a lot of players.”

Jaylen Brown in Cannes at Sport Beach today speaking on the situation ❗️ pic.twitter.com/VroszzyV7c

— vic (@CountOnVic) June 24, 2026

Brown going after Smith is no surprise because the two have been at it since the end of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs. There, Smith took exception to Brown blaming the refs after the Celtics blew a 3-1 first-round lead to the Philadelphia 76ers.

After the Milwaukee Bucks did not accept a trade package for Giannis Antetokounmpo centered around Brown, Smith responded with more criticism of the Celtics star.

“One of the things we not gonna do, bro, is we not gonna let you sit around and act like you a victim,” Smith said on First Take. “We ain’t gonna do that. We ain’t letting Jaylen Brown get away with that.”

Smith went on to criticize Brown over comments he made about doubters making him a better player. Smith argued that Brown had not really faced doubters and was instead widely celebrated for his role in leading the Celtics to a No. 2 seed.

Brown’s comments at Cannes were his first opportunity to publicly respond to Smith’s latest remarks.

Brown is far from the first person to complain about ESPN’s control over popular sports narratives, especially in the NFL and NBA. Even former ESPN employees, like Merril Hoge, have criticized ESPN’s “embrace debate” mentality.

In Brown’s specific case, it seems he did not appreciate how underrated the Celtics were entering this season, even after the “salary dump” of stars like Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis.

Though, if Brown really wants the sports narrative to not run through ESPN, publicly calling out ESPN and Stephen A. Smith is unlikely to accomplish that. As always, there will be interested parties tuning into First Take tomorrow to see how Smith responds.