Jaylen Brown has built a reputation for speaking truth since his start in the pro league. Recently, he pointed his fingers at the NBA officiating and some selected players who get baby treatment from them.
Brown went all out on referees after he was fined $35,000 on Tuesday for his postgame rant following the San Antonio Spurs loss. The penalty couldn’t silence him. Instead, the Boston Celtics star doubled down with sharp accusations about how officials treat some big-market players differently.
Jaylen Brown Says NBA Refs Protect Only Big-Market Teams
Speaking publicly for the first time since being fined, Brown spent minutes offering insight into how he believes the Celtics are being treated unfairly by officials. He put his full case study about the active disparity on the table during his postgame availability.
“I do the same things that they do. They just pick and choose who they like to call it on,” Brown stated. “That’s the part that pisses me off. It should just be everybody should just get reffed evenly and consistently, but it just seems like there’s an agenda where some guys they choose to call certain fouls for, some guys they don’t.”
Brown said he doesn’t know how those calls are decided, but from his view it’s obvious that certain players — on certain teams, in certain markets, with certain profiles — get more favorable treatment when it should just come down to basketball.
The comments came before the Celtics’ Spurs game on January 10. Spurs’ overwhelming stat sheet compared to the Celtics’ has been backing Brown’s claim. His team attempted just four free throws compared to 20 for the Spurs.
Brown himself got no free throws despite attacking the basket repeatedly. “I’m driving to the basket, I’m physical, I don’t flop, and I don’t shy away from contact. I go up strong; I’m athletic and nothing. I had zero free throws tonight. The inconsistency is crazy. Give me the fine,” Brown said after the Spurs game.
This marks the latest addition in Brown’s ongoing war with authority figures. His first challenge to these alleged power structures was by turning down a $50 million Nike deal in 2022 because of uneven contract language. He launched his own sneaker brand instead.
He always refuses to stay quiet when he sees injustice, regardless of financial consequences. This latest criticism regarding officials follows the same blueprint, and he made sure everyone took notice because his $35,000 penalty was $10,000 more than typical fines for similar offenses.
Whether the league addresses his concerns remains uncertain. And though he didn’t name those selective teams in his blunt remake, Spurs is one of those teams, I’m pretty sure, because he ratted out those after the frustrating loss to San Antonio.
