Jaylen Brown and the Celtics had their season come to a stunning end Saturday night when they lost Game 7 at home to the 76ers, 109–100. Boston had a 3–1 lead in the series but then dropped three straight games and are now on summer vacation.
Brown, who had 33 points in Game 7, was critical of the refs right after the game and called out Joel Embiid for flopping.
“He's a big body. He also was flopping around,” Brown said of Embiid during his postgame press conference. “He got some extra calls and stuff like that and they rewarded him for that. But that's the league that we're in.”
More: Celtics Season Grades—Judging Boston’s Year After Shocking First-Round Exit to 76ers
On Sunday night Brown held a very strange livestream on Twitch in which he broke down moments from Game 7 and said the refs had an “agenda” against him.
The most surprising part of the livestream, however, came when Brown spoke about this year’s Celtics team and what this season meant to him.
“I’m so proud and it was my favorite year of my basketball career,” Brown said. “One, streaming with you guys, chat, was awesome. Being able to talk to you y’all was like therapy, just being able to get on here and give you all the perspective because all these narratives be going left and right, just to hear it from the horse’s mouth. But then also to be able to be part of a group through the uncertainty came to fight, came to compete, and came and went to war. I’ll take a team like that any day of the week.”
"It was my favorite year of my basketball career"
— Riley ❄️ (@rileysbetter) May 4, 2026
- Jaylen Brown pic.twitter.com/e5IFF93dWy
The surprising aspect of those comments is that Brown won a NBA championship in June 2024 and was named NBA Finals MVP after the Celtics beat the Mavericks in five games. One would think that would be his favorite year, not the one in which his team blew a 3–1 series lead in the first round and had their championship hopes come to a screeching halt.
This year was a challenge for Brown and the Celtics as they played most of the regular season without Jayson Tatum, who was out until March with his Achilles injury. While Brown and the Celtics did show a tremendous amount of fight and remained one of the top teams in the East without one of its star players, the way the season ended was a tremendous disappointment and one fans of the team will want to forget about as soon as possible.
Jaylen Brown called out refs for having an agenda
Brown wasn’t happy with the officiating and took some time on his stream to not only address it, but point out things he thought they got wrong in Game 7.
One of those moments had to do with Paul George appearing to get away with a bit of a push-off. Brown, who was called for 10 offensive fouls in the series, took issue with George not getting called for a foul on that play.
“If you’re going to call push-offs, call that,” Brown said. “Same move. Same refs. Oh, it’s nothing? It’s play on, right? But you gonna call me? Everybody does it ... but if it would have been me, it'd have been an offensive foul.”
Jaylen said he thinks the refs have an agenda against him
— Riley ❄️ (@rileysbetter) May 4, 2026
"any time Jaylen brings his arm up just from reputation just call it" pic.twitter.com/FNQHwYRBp1
He then sounded off even more, saying:
“Every good basketball player does this. What are y’all talking about? They clearly had an agenda,” Brown said. “If Jaylen does this move, call the offensive foul and follow him every time. I don’t know if it’s because I pissed the refs off. I’ve been critical about them, and I called them out a bunch of times. So, they were like, ‘You know what, I got you in the playoffs. Watch this.’ [Because] that’s exactly what they did.
“It’s clearly an agenda. Look at the same move. Some referees that if I had to choose, if I had to, like, say there's some referees that need to be investigated. We had three of them in the last three games.”
More: Celtics Offseason Preview—How Boston Can Bounce Back After Shocking First-Round Exit to 76ers
Jaylen Brown also broke down his decision in the final minutes that had fans scratching their heads
With the Celtics down by a point and just over two minutes left in the game, Brown looked like he could have gotten the ball to an open Neemias Queta in the paint. Instead, Brown passed it off to Payton Pritchard, who was unable to make an open three-pointer from the corner. Brown said he thought Queta might have been caught by Embiid and that he thought Pritchard was the best option.
“Wide open, on time on target to one of the best shooters in the league,” Brown said of his decision to get it to Pritchard. “I’m doing that 100 times out of 100.”
Jaylen said he thinks he made the right decision passing it to Pritchard instead of Queta
— Riley ❄️ (@rileysbetter) May 4, 2026
"I'm doing that 100 times out of 100...." pic.twitter.com/V1sxfm4S92
Brown had a lot to say in his Twitch livestream and he’ll likely hear from the league about his comments on the officiating. While some of his commentary about certain plays was interesting, complaining about calls the day after being knocked out of the playoffs was a tough look for a player of Brown’s caliber.
More NBA Playoffs From Sports Illustrated
- What to Expect From Anthony Edwards As He’s Set to Return for Game 1 Between Timberwolves, Spurs
- NBA Playoff Power Rankings: How the Final Eight Teams Stack Up Entering Second Round
- Five Burning Questions for the NBA Playoffs’ Second Round
- Chris Mannix’s NBA Notes: What’s Next for Orlando After Magic Fire Jamahl Mosley
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jaylen Brown Made a Surprising Admission About the Celtics During Cringy Livestream After Game 7 Loss.
