Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown went on at length with criticisms of the NBA and its officiating in a livestream on Sunday evening.
The stream, which was broadcast on the platform Twitch, came one day after Brown and the Celtics were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Sixers were led by 34 points and 12 rebounds from Joel Embiid in the 109-100 victory.
Brown alleges that Embiid embellished some of the contact he received and that the officials bought it hook, line and sinker.
‘I mean, this is my personal opinion on basketball,’ Brown said on the stream. ‘Some of y’all might disagree, you know what I mean? But argue with your grandma. Flopping has ruined our game.
‘Embiid is a great player, one of the best bigs in f***in basketball history, flops,’ Brown continued. ‘He knows it. This ain’t breaking news.’
WARNING: VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown believes referees had an agenda against him in the playoffs
In a rant on his Twitch channel, Brown suggested that flopping has ruined basketball
He also called out Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid who he said ‘flops’ without notice
Brown also believes that his previous comments from the regular season, which were critical of referees, may have led to some retaliatory officiating.
‘Why are you targeting me? They clearly had an agenda,’ he said. ‘Maybe because I spoke, I was critical of the refs in the regular season.
‘So you know how they responded? ‘We’re gonna call every — you’re gonna lead the playoffs in offensive fouls.’ That was the response from the officiating crew.
‘You could clearly tell. I’ve actually spoken to some refs and they said it was an agenda going into each game. “Any time Jaylen brings his arm up, just from reputation, just call it.”‘
Brown was incensed by the officials’ tendency to call those push-off plays on him, but not others such as 76ers star Paul George or New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson.
‘It’s a basketball play, whether y’all believe it or not,’ Brown said. ‘Everybody does that when you drive, especially if you’ve got bodies on you. But Philly took advantage of it, and they took advantage of the officiating.
‘It cost us to some degree. I’ve been doing it all regular season, not a problem. Now, all of a sudden, it’s an offensive foul every time. Keep that same energy with everybody else. That’s all I’ve gotta say.’
Brown finished the game with 33 points and nine rebounds in the narrow loss
In the first round, Brown was whistled for ten offensive fouls – which was more than twice the number of offensive fouls called on the next-highest player.
Brown was called for 40 offensive fouls during the regular season, which was second in the NBA behind the Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns.
In the final game of the Celtics’ season, Brown dropped 33 points and had nine rebounds in the narrow defeat.
This season, he averaged 28.7 points per game – the fourth-best mark in the league.
