Stephen A. Smith Fires Back at Jaylen Brown’s Mentor for ‘Unmarketable’ Comment

Jaylen Brown has had an impressive postseason so far. After winning the first three games in the Eastern Conference Finals, his team is now just one win away from proceeding to the NBA Finals. However, on a recent episode of First Take, Stephen A. Smith revealed how NBA  insiders truly feel about the Celtics star. Meanwhile, Brown’s mentor and NBA legend Isiah Thomas called Smith out on X for his shady reporting. An hour later, SAS fired back at Zeke for misinterpreting his words.

Thomas showed that he had Brown’s best interests in mind when he decided to call out Stephen A. for reporting that a source had told him that Jaylen Brown is not marketable as an NBA star. The Detroit Pistons legend wrote, “…he [JB] 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.”

Infuriated by this public response, Stephen A. clapped back at Zeke, saying, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The 56-year-old said that he has always been a fan of JB and that he never said that he is not “marketable.” He also expressed his unhappiness over the fact that Zeke chose to go a public forum to reveal his thoughts when instead, he could’ve simply contacted him personally to clear it out.

Smith added, “What’s unfortunate is that YOU — who’s known for me decades — would choose to go on X to expressed whatever dissent you feel instead of calling me directly…I root for JB always—a great dude and player. But the @celtics have to close the deal.“

This situation was triggered by Stephen A. when during an episode of First Take he read a message that he received from an “NBA source” on air. He said, “I wanted to read to y’all what an NBA source just sent me. 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 is not as marketable as he should be.'”

It’s pretty clear that the Pistons legend was frustrated by the comments platformed by Stephen A. Smith, which downplayed Brown’s marketability while avoiding all accountability for doing so. However, now that they have taken this issue public, several fans have flocked social media with their opinions.

Hoop fans torch Stephen A. Smith after his response to Isiah Thomas

Several fans under Stephen A.’s post called him out for being a hypocrite. They outlined that he can’t cry over Thomas calling him out publicly when he did the same thing to JB. One fan said that SAS is acting out even when there’s nothing wrong in what the NBA legend did.

One fan posted the clip of Stephen A. from his show where he read that alleged “NBA source” message. He can clearly be heard calling JB an unmarketable player based on the unnamed source’s word.

Another fan asked Stephen A. why he can make all the public statements he wants but everyone else can only clear things out with him privately.

It seems like the media veteran has gained a reputation among fans who have seen a pattern in him with his inability to take criticism.

From the looks of it, Stephen A. is getting a lot of flak for his response. So, it will be interesting to see if the NBA veteran decides to keep this beef public or decides to resolve the issue privately.