The fallout from the Boston Celtics first-round exit is still unfolding, and Jaylen Brown isn’t holding back.
After Boston’s seven-game loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, Brown went live on Twitch and delivered a blunt assessment of both the officiating and Joel Embiid’s style of play.
“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.”
Brown’s frustration didn’t stop with Embiid. The Celtics forward made it clear he believes the whistle was uneven throughout the series, and possibly targeted.
“Every good basketball player does this. What are y’all talking about? They clearly had an agenda,” Brown said. “If Jaylen does this move, call the offensive foul and follow him every time. I don’t know if it’s because I pissed 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.”
Brown was whistled for 10 offensive fouls during the series, double the next closest player, a stat that only added fuel to his argument. He pointed to specific plays during his stream, highlighting what he felt were inconsistencies in how similar actions were judged.
“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 All-Star wing went even further, questioning the integrity of certain officiating crews.
“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.”
Despite the strong claims, the numbers from the series show relatively even foul totals between both teams. Still, for Brown, the issue wasn’t quantity, it was consistency.
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