Jaylen Brown’s exceptional performance in the East Finals against the Indiana Pacers earned him the Larry Bird ECF MVP trophy yesterday night. However, the 27-year-old forward made headlines recently for completely different reasons after Stephen A. Smith quoted comments from an anonymous NBA source that dubbed Brown to be ‘unmarketable’ as an NBA athlete. In the wake of all this, Isiah Thomas shared an interesting video that talks about JB being ‘too smart for the NBA’.
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The Pistons icon shared a clip from sports content creator Mariah Rose, which detailed how the Celtics superstar’s busy life outside of basketball is much more interesting than what people may think. In fact, Brown was so smart in college that it was seen as a deterrent to his potential as an athlete.
Brown attended UC Berkeley, a top-15 academic program in the country, and played for the University’s chess varsity team while also starring for their basketball team, the Golden Bears. In a 2020 interview with GQ Magazine, the forward had revealed that he was offered a NASA internship as well, which he intends to take up when he has the time.
Let it be known https://t.co/zqVgO3EdkL
— Isiah Thomas (@IsiahThomas) May 27, 2024
Brown’s slew of interests prompted scouts to believe he’d find basketball boring in the long run and might not reach the heights he’s capable of as a player. But he proved them wrong. His work ethic and dedication saw him blossom into one of the best two-way players in the league.
Rose’s video also highlighted how the Celtics franchise handed him the richest contract in NBA history, a source of great pride for Thomas.
The Hall of Famer captioned Rose’s video, “Let it be known,” reminding everyone that the Celtics star is not the bland character the media is trying to portray him to be. Rose’s starting comments in the video is particularly interesting in this context, “Jaylen Brown’s off-the-court interests are some of the most interesting I’ve heard from any athlete of any sport.”
Therefore, Thomas knew what he was doing when he called out Stephen A. Smith for his comments.
Isiah Thomas called out Stephen A. Smith for slandering Jaylen Brown
Once Jaylen Brown’s mentor, Isiah Thomas does not tolerate anyone bad-mouthing the Celtics star. He recently went to war with ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith for allegedly slandering his protege. Following Brown’s heroics in Games 1 and 2 against the Pacers, the First Take debated whether the forward is the most underrated player in the league.
Meanwhile, Smith chimed in and said,
“I wanted to read to y’all what an NBA source just sent me [about Jaylen Brown]. He said, ‘Jaylen Brown, it’s not so much that he’s underrated, it’s that he’s just not liked because of his I-am-better-than-you attitude. He knows it. It’s the same reason he is not as marketable as he should be.’ That’s what an NBA source just sent me.”
Following Smith’s comments, Thomas came to Brown’s defense on social media and called out the analyst, demanding he name the scout who called the forward snobbish and unmarketable.
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.
— Isiah Thomas (@IsiahThomas) May 26, 2024
Smith defensively responded that he did not expect Thomas to attack him and believed he should have relayed his grievances privately. The Hall of Famer responded that he’d do that, but also warned the analyst not to let others use him as a mouthpiece to run their agenda. The slander against Brown awoke the Bad-Boy Piston inside Thomas and it seems like he won’t let anyone speak disrespectfully about his mentee.
