Jaylen Brown took his chance to take one final swipe at Joel Embiid with the Boston Celtics’ season coming to an end.
The Boston Celtics star spoke to reporters on Saturday after his team lost Game 7 of their first-round series against Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers. Brown initially sounded like he was praising Embiid, calling him an interior presence that none of Boston’s big men could handle. That was before Brown blasted the former MVP for “flopping around.”
“We didn’t really have an answer for him. … He’s a big body,” Brown said. “He also was flopping around. He got some extra calls, and stuff like that, and they rewarded him for that. But that’s the league that we’re in. That’s all I’ve got to say.”
Embiid finished with a game-high 34 points on 12/26 shooting with 12 rebounds and 6 assists. He also got to the free-throw line 11 times.
To his credit, Embiid, who is less than a month removed from an emergency appendectomy, got battered and bruised throughout the contest and still managed to play until the final buzzer. The 76ers star even took a scary blow to the knee after Brown shoved Tyrese Maxey into the big man’s legs in the fourth quarter.
🚨Joel Embiid Injured: Jaylen Brown pushes Maxey into his knee. That's the 2nd time someone has pushed another player into embiids knees this game. pic.twitter.com/45hbsrQpQS
— DJACK (@DJACK_RipCity) May 3, 2026
It’s not the first time Brown has called out a fellow All-Star for allegedly playing for the referee’s whistle. Brown took a similar shot at Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in March for what he believed to be an unethical style of play.
Brown had the best season of his career to lead the Celtics to a top-2 seed without Jayson Tatum available for most of the year. But with the team’s latest playoff ouster, Boston may reportedly look to break up the core that won the title just a few seasons ago.
