Cal Sports Report

Jaylen Brown Wins ESPY for Best Championship Performance

Former Cal standout Brown also seems to be having a social-media dispute with ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith

Jake Curtis

Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) during the victory parade on June 21
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) during the victory parade on June 21 / Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports
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It’s been an interesting few weeks for former Cal standout Jaylen Brown, and it was capped off by winning an ESPY award Thursday night.   Nonetheless, much of the publicity he received on Thursday involved an apparent twitter feud with ESPN commentator Stphen A. Smith.

Brown was named the Eastern Conference MVP and the NBA Finals MVP while leading the Boston Celtics to the NBA championship last month.

Then on Wednesday, Celtics guard Derrick White was named to the U.S. Olympic team as a replacement for the injured Kawhi Leonard.  Some people reacted to the choice of White as a snub of Brown, who is considered one of the Celtics’ two big stars, along with Jayson Tatum.

Brown responded with a cryptic twitter emoji, which many interpreted as Brown’s dissatisfaction with not being chosen as Leonard’s replacement.

Later Wednesday, Brown tweeted this:

Some interpreted this message to mean Brown believed Nike – Team USA’s jersey sponsor -- had something to do with the snub. Brown had criticized Nike two years ago regarding the company’s criticism of Kyrie Irving when he shared an anti-Semitic film on social media.

Grant Hill, Team USA’s managing director, denied that Nike had anything to do with the selection of White, but ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith responded via twitter with a criticism of Brown:

Here's Smith's tweet in its etirety:

Do y’all believe me now? Yo , do I need to reveal my sources now? Is it not obvious now? How in the hell is a $300M man — now a champion and an NBA Finals MVP— who’s clearly a top-two player on the and a Top-15 player in the world, NOT chosen for Team-USA? B/c his teammate NOT named Tatum is selected before him? Come on y’all!!!

You may recall that in May Smith said on ESPN’s First Take that he was told by an NBA source that Brown is "not liked because of his I-am-better-than-you attitude."

Brown responded to that on twitter that same day in May:

Brown the wore a "State Your Source" T-short during the Celtics victory parade.

Fast forward to this morning (Thursday morning) when Brown tweeted this:

It’s not clear to whom this is directed, but the inference is that Smith is the target for what Smith had tweeted on Wednesday.

Then Thursday night Brown was the recipient of a prestigious ESPY award for Best Championship Performance.  His MVP awards in the Celtics final two series provided his credentials to win that award, and he beat out the four other athletes nominated in that category – Michigan running back Blake Corum, Michigan defensive back Will Johnson, soccer player Midge Purce, and lacrosse player Kayla Martello.

In the five-game series win over the Mavericks in the NBA Finals, Brown averaged 20.8 points, 5.0 assist and 5.4 rebounds.

Brown won’t be playing basketball at the Paris Olympics, but it remains to be seen whether his back-ad-forth with Smith has concluded.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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