Stephen A. Smith’s recent comments about Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown didn’t sit right with Isiah Thomas.
The NBA legend challenged Smith on Twitter Sunday for using anonymous sources to question Brown’s marketability and attitude.
“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,” Thomas tweeted.
The quotes that drew Thomas’ ire occurred on First Take Friday, when Molly Qerim asked Smith, Jay Williams and Kendrick Perkins if he felt that Brown was the most underrated player in the NBA.
Smith first agreed with Perkins that Brown, who was not selected for any All-NBA teams, might be “one of the most underrated stars” in the NBA, though he said he had a hard time replacing any of the players who did make All-NBA with the Celtics’ wing.
At the end of the conversation is when Smith dropped his sourced info questioning Brown’s marketability.
“I wanted to read to y’all what an NBA source just sent me,” Smith said. “He said, ‘Jaylen Brown. It’s not so much that he’s underrated. It’s that he 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.”
To be fair, Smith did not personally express this opinion, he merely passed along what a source was telling him.
However, Thomas felt it was unfair for him to do that, considering the quotes were less than flattering and came anonymously.
Marketability or not, Brown has certainly brought it through the first three games of the Eastern Conference Finals. He’s averaging 30 points per game while shooting 52.3% from the field.
Boston leads the Indiana Pacers 3-0 and needs one more win to return to the NBA Finals.