Speaking Sunday on his Twitch stream, Celtics star Jaylen Brown accused officials of having “an agenda” against him during the first-round loss to Philadelphia, ESPN relays. He also called out Sixers center Joel Embiid for flopping, saying it has “ruined our game.”
“Joel Embiid is a great player. One of the best bigs in basketball history. [But he] flops. He know it,” Brown said. “This ain’t breaking news. It is what it is.”
At one point during his comments, Brown showed a video of Philadelphia forward Paul George seeming to push off slightly before making a move. Brown, who was whistled for 10 offensive fouls during the series – twice as many as any other player in the first round – claims he isn’t officiated the same as everyone else.
“If you’re going to call push-offs, call that,” Brown said. “Same move. Same refs. Oh, it’s nothing? It’s play on, right? But you gonna call me? Everybody does it … but if it would have been me, it’d have been an offensive foul.”
The story notes that Brown was called for 40 offensive fouls during the regular season, second only to Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns. However, foul calls were roughly even during the seven-game series, with 136 on the Celtics and 132 on the Sixers.
Brown averaged 25.7 points per game during the series, the best postseason scoring numbers of his career, while shooting 45.5% from the floor and 40.5% from beyond the arc. He was whistled for 3.0 fouls per game.
“Every good basketball player does this. What are y’all talking about? They clearly had an agenda,” Brown added in reference to George’s alleged push-off. “If Jaylen does this move, call the offensive foul and follow him every time. I don’t know if it’s because I p—– the refs off. I’ve been critical about them, and I called them out a bunch of times. So, they were like, ‘You know what, I got you in the playoffs. Watch this.’ [Because] that’s exactly what they did. It’s clearly an agenda. Look at the same move. Some referees that if I had to choose, if I had to, like, say there’s some referees that need to be investigated. We had three of them in the last three games.”
Brown battled with referees several times throughout the season, notes Souichi Terada of MassLive. He stated in November that he was unhappy with their calls in general, then specifically called out Curtis Blair after a January 11 loss to San Antonio, saying the crew was “terrible.” Brown also blasted the officiating after being ejected from a March 10 rematch with the Spurs for complaining about a no-call. He was fined $35K for his comments on Blair.
Brown just in his feelings. Both Brown and Embiid exaggerate contact and Jaylen was foul baiting for all of Game 7. He got away with offensive fouls and got phantom fouls called on the 76ers.
Please! Watch any Philly player, especially Oubre. If Brown starts driving suddenly #9, Oubre, is falling backwards, a face looking like he’s hurt. Flopping was a big part of Nurse’s, the classic whiner’s, game plan. They knew the refs would go along.
I mean, he isn’t wrong.
Ai should be able to do better than a human ref.
Funny he wasn’t crying over flopping when he was up 3-1. He is clearly crying his season is over. Also 95% of the league flops. If you think Embiid flops wait till u see him and Brunson in rd2…trying to out flop each other. Flopping is part of today nba.
Steph Curry never flops
My point still stands – human refs are not the best option here.
Sure Curry flops. I saw him get a technical foul for flopping. And I believe he was once fined $5000 for flopping. What are you smoking 2.0?
I thought AI was boiling the ocean and anyone who used it was demon sent to destroy San Jose?
Brown is spot on about Embiid. Embiid has even flopped onto players and injured them. The guy probably injured himself on some of his flops. And now everyone is doing it and one guy did it to an MVP.
wah wah wah
Celtics got beat by the better team that wanted it more. Now he knows what its like facing teh Celtics and they get the ticky tack fouls. I am tired of allowing the offensive player to push off or run into players for fouls.
I like Jalen Brown. But he initiates contact then uses his arm to push off. More than anyone in NBA. He should stop crying.
Id put brunson a close second IMO.
Nowhere near Shae.
What a tool. Choke choke choke. Whine whine whine.
He’s not wrong at all. But also I believe whining and a championship fortitude cannot coexist.
Lakers got the dumbest call in the entire postseason (when Ayton was ejected) and they still took care of business. Ayton went off the very next game. Tatum or Brown get an unfavorable call and they need 6 weeks of therapy afterwards. It’s pathetic.
To be fair, getting Ayton off the court was addition by subtraction for LAL…
There’s no personal Vendetta, They’re just bad and now it’s your turn. There are some horrible refs in pro sports and the worse it gets and the more the Unions get control and the bad ones can’t get fired and nobody spends any money to educate them it will just get worse not better. So just grow a pair I guess. You can dump a bad player but you can’t fire a bad ref or being bad? That’s just wrong. And if you need proof of what I’m saying look no further than Angel Hernandez.
Embiid definitely flops. There is nothing wrong about saying that. But dear lord brown is such a self centered crybaby. Everytime he faces adversity there is an agenda against him.
Wait a minute. Wasn’t it midway thru the season when this started? After the Celtics set a record for fewest foul shots in a game? And it wasn’t public until Brown started pointing it out? A few games later fouls started evening out. I don’t doubt refs took offense and planned to get even.
Not saying Philly wasn’t better in this series. They were.
Hit 3s.
The refs are all around terrible – no question.
…and if Boston hits their 3s, they win.
I watched the games, they had plenty of open looks that just wouldn’t go down, sometimes that is the way it goes.
…but the refs can’t hit the 3s for you, and it wasn’t the refs that lost Boston the series it was the terrible 3pt shooting.
Brown is going back to his college days being in California and whining about everything.
The NBA is becoming the top gripe and moan sport, the players gripe on every whistle it seems. I never seen a game where the players try to ref the game more, I have a thought let the NBA have a game where the players call their own fouls how long would that last before anarchy sets in. The NBA does not have its refs call a complete game now as it is, how many travel calls are actually called. There is hardly a hold call, even though you see jerseys being pulled on. Really the NBA is slowly becoming a game where why are there referees on the court anyway. NBA is becoming a non-refereeing league, what do they do anyway except talk to New York on certain calls.
I love JB. He does unintentionally hit a lot of people in the face with his elbows, which is an offensive foul.
The league has an agenda against the CELTICS? Lol lmao. Brown is upset he can’t win without Tatum.
OMG, can we just get a player(s) ti stop whining about the refs, blaming teammates for losing, etc.!?
So tired of guys not taking any responsibiliity for losing.
If players start getting T’d up for all the weeping, it’ll disappear. Whine twice? Two T’s and gone. Maybe it’ll be a point of emphasis in 26-27. We can hope.
Embiid shooting mid range with Pritchard closing out and falls over multiple times nobody near him. One T would stop that. Been getting away with it his whole career why change now.
Weeping paranoia at a monumental choke performance. How in the world do you p*** away those kinds of leads?? No, it isn’t officiating.
“weeping paranoia”
Maybe he’s just talking shi…
This season, Jaylen Brown proved to everyone he is the biggest cry baby in the nba.
First he was crying about a “Player of the month” award. Now, the team he was leading blows a 3-1 lead and it is because of an agenda.
Pretty sure he was bragging about leading this Boston team the whole season, and now it has nothing to do with him…
While Imagree with JB about Embid flopping, he needs to shut up about the refs having it in for him. He probably should be called for more offensive fouls than he already is. His push offs while handling the ball are clearly offensive fouls. And I’m a Celtics fan, BTW. Jalen needs to worry more about his high turnover rate than whether the refs don’t like him.
Whining and referring to himself in the third person? Too much for me.
He’s not wrong, Embiid, Brunson, SGA – they are used to flop.
Embiid is maybe the best flopper.
And it’s a shame because all of these players are really great players, they don’t really need to flop. It ruined the game.
Well there goes JB and the Celtics’ chance to lose with dignity… pathetic.
It’s pretty wild that Jaylen Brown is smart enough to be a speaker at Harvard and MIT, but not smart enough to read the room.