Jaylen Brown Calls Out Foul-Baiting After Celtics Lose to SGA’s Thunder

The Thunder beat the Celtics, 104–102, on Thursday night in a matchup of MVP candidates. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points to go along with nine assists and six rebounds in the win, while Jaylen Brown had 34 points, seven assists and six rebounds in the loss.

As with most Oklahoma City wins, there was plenty of talk about free throws and foul calls after the game. Brown, coming off a game where he was ejected for arguing a call, took particular aim at foul-baiting.

Jaylen Brown Speaks on Players Manipulating the Game After Celtic Thunder Matchup

“we commend players for playing the game the right way but we give the benefit to those who try to manipulate the game into their advantage. I just don't think it’s basketball. Like let's just… pic.twitter.com/G7MPNZYx9f
— CELTICS ☘️ BANNER 19 (@BiggLynch) March 13, 2026

"I don't know, maybe it all works in the end, but I just don't foul bait," Brown said. "I'm not looking to flop or anything like that, but it's almost like you got to. It's almost like, because there's a couple of plays in the fourth quarter where I felt like I drove strong, went up strong, and I didn't get the benefit of the doubt. But maybe if I would have flopped, maybe I would have been able to sell that call. And those decide games.

"It's like, we commend players for playing the game the right way, but we give the benefit to those who necessarily are trying to manipulate the game into their advantage. I just don't think it's basketball. Let's just play basketball. All the foul-baiting, I think it's whatever for me."

The thing is, Brown was very much exaggerating contact in hopes of getting call on the play that led to his ejection earlier this week. Stephon Castle definitely had his hands on Brown, but he did not push him hard enough to send him flying into the first row.

And of all the nights to talk about foul baiting, he chose to do so on a night where he shot 14 free throws, which was six more than Gilgeous-Alexander got to shoot. Meanwhile, SGA closed the game by scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter and they were all from the field. He did not attempt a single free throw in the fourth quarter while Brown shot five.

The local OKC media was also happy to provide an example of Brown trying to get a call from the same game. Some might consider this unethical basketball.

https://t.co/5N61lra2HE pic.twitter.com/2dviYPsi6K
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) March 13, 2026

Of course, just because Brown shot more free throws than Gilgeous-Alexander on Thursday and he too has tried to sell a call at least once in his career, that doesn't necessarily make him wrong. There were a few more instances of SGA not playing basketball in its purest form, where he earned free throws for what wasn't exactly a standard shot attempt.

SGA got free throws for losing the basketball 😭 pic.twitter.com/y6ovlJZtoc
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) March 13, 2026

In the next clip you can hear Brown in the background yelling "That's not basketball!"

Jaylen Brown on the foul call for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

“That’s not basketball”

(h/t @TheNBABase)pic.twitter.com/B23hjFIlwZ
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) March 13, 2026

So what do we do exactly? It is true that many players are rewarded for foul-baiting and the other players who consider themselves more ethical hoopers know this. Combine that with a professional basketball player's inherent feeling that they should always get the call and you're going to get more exaggeration.

What we really need is a full cultural shift. Until everyone involved agrees to just play honestly, this problem will never go away. And if they don't, it is only a matter of time until players are arguing with robots instead of officials.