{"id":1916222,"date":"2026-05-04T03:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1916222"},"modified":"2026-05-04T03:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:43:10","slug":"jaylen-brown-says-joel-embiid-is-a-basketball-great-but-flops-too-much-he-knows-it-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1916222","title":{"rendered":"Jaylen Brown says Joel Embiid is a basketball great but flops too much: \u2018He knows it, too\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jaylen Brown had some lingering thoughts to get off.<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours after Brown and the Boston Celtics blew a 3-1 lead to the Philadelphia 76ers with a Game 7 loss, Brown took to Twitch to break down highlights and discuss myriad topics. He began by praising the 76ers\u2019 former MVP center, Joel Embiid, who missed the series\u2019 first three games before returning for the final four.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we was up 3-1, when Joel Embiid came back, it was an issue,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

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Brown showed a third-quarter clip in which the 6-foot-6, 223-pound guard attempted to guard the 7-foot, 270-pound center in the post, unsuccessfully, as Embiid powered through for 2 of his 34 points, to go along with 12 rebounds, in the closeout performance. It marked just his fourth game back after missing roughly two weeks following emergency appendicitis surgery.<\/p>\n

Embiid underwent the operation April 9 and missed the 76ers\u2019 final two regular-season games, their Play-In win over the Orlando Magic and the first three games against Boston, when the Celtics surged to a 2-1 lead. Boston overpowered Philadelphia 128-96 in Embiid\u2019s Game 4 return but failed to close out the series over the final three games.<\/p>\n

Embiid averaged 28.6 points in 37.3 minutes per game across Philadelphia\u2019s final three wins, with two double-doubles. His dominance bordered on comical to Brown. The Boston guard pulled up a previous clip from \u201cabout a week before we played them\u201d when he had assessed the 76ers without their star center, who had appeared in just 38 games this season and was out hurt at the time.<\/p>\n

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At the moment, Brown wondered whether Philadelphia might be better off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, personally, they may be a little better without Embiid,\u201d he said before the series. \u201cI\u2019m not sure, but I know they\u2019re doing all this. They\u2019ve been playing well, finding the identity. \u2026 We\u2019ll see if the big fella comes back; they\u2019ve been doing their job.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the fact, Brown suggested Embiid\u2019s takeover might have been evidence the 32-year-old had taken notice of Brown\u2019s slights.<\/p>\n

He posited that Embiid sat at home \u201ceating chocolate chip cookies\u201d while watching and stewing over Brown\u2019s comments. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018You know what? When I come back, I\u2019m gonna show these n\u2014\u2013,\u2019 because I ain\u2019t never seen him that dominant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out Brown was wrong, and he knew it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI give him credit,\u201d Brown finished. \u201cHe came out, and he made a difference in this series, no question.\u201d<\/p>\n

And though Brown conceded that Embiid ultimately swung the series against the Celtics, he took issue with the center\u2019s play style and the way it was officiated. Embiid has long leaned into contact, often initiating it to get to the line. He earned 28 free-throw attempts across the final three 76ers wins.<\/p>\n

For Brown, drawing fouls is an art, but he drew a firm line between that and what he sees as exaggeration, arguing that fans often blur the distinction without understanding it. To him, Embiid\u2019s approach crosses into something below the integrity of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think he flopped entirely, way too much,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSome of y\u2019all don\u2019t even know what flopping is in the chat, like some of y\u2019all clearly don\u2019t know basketball. Y\u2019all don\u2019t know what flopping is. Flopping is exaggerating contact that\u2019s already there. It\u2019s not about drawing contact or drawing fouls. Nobody has a problem with drawing fouls. That\u2019s a part of the game. Use your brains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the thing about this basketball era where y\u2019all have turned our brains off and just look at analytics. Y\u2019all have no idea what y\u2019all talking about. Flopping and exaggerating contact is different. It\u2019s like when somebody barely touched you and you selling a call to make it seem like you just got shot. \u2026 Argue with your grandma, flopping has ruined our game. Joel Embiid is a great player, one of the best bigs in f\u2014ing basketball history, flops. He knows it. This ain\u2019t breaking news.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
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\n Jayson Tatum on sitting out Celtics\u2019 season-ending Game 7 loss: \u2018Unfortunate timing\u2019\n <\/div>\n
\n Tatum now has the offseason to get back to 100 percent. “I guess that’s the silver lining of it all,\u201d he said after Boston’s Game 7 loss.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Brown also took issue with how he was officiated personally. He pointed to a clip of a pull-up jumper he converted, in which he believed he was fouled but received no call, then launched into a brief diatribe about what he viewed as a pattern working against him and his team.<\/p>\n

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Boston ranked last in free-throw attempts during the regular season and 14th out of 16 playoff teams in the first round.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy this series that I was complaining about officiating,\u201d Brown said. \u201cRightfully so, we were like, our team finished dead last in getting calls. And I was vocal about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown, who scored 33 points in Game 7 and averaged a career-high 28.7 points per game this season, said he felt the whistle most on the offensive end. He believed he was officiated more harshly in situations when he created space, particularly on push-offs, a move he argued is common across the league.<\/p>\n

Brown pointed to New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson and 76ers star Paul George as examples of players he feels use similar tactics without the same scrutiny, viewing it as evidence of a personal inconsistency in how he is judged.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery player does it. So why are you targeting me?\u201d he said on the stream. \u201cThey clearly had an agenda. Maybe because I spoke and was critical of refs in the regular season. So they responded, \u2018You\u2019re gonna lead the playoffs in offensive fouls.\u2019 That\u2019s how that was, the response from the officiating crew. You could clearly tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019ve actually spoke to some refs, and they said it was an agenda going into each game. \u2018So anytime Jaylen brings his arm up, just from reputation, just call it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown eventually moved on, returning to breaking down film.<\/p>\n

The Celtics and Brown enter an unfamiliar offseason. It marks the first time in his career his season has ended in a first-round series in which he played. Brown missed Boston\u2019s 2020-21 first-round exit to the Brooklyn Nets with a torn left wrist ligament.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old has reached six conference finals, two NBA Finals, and won a title in 2023-24, earning finals MVP honors in his 10-year NBA career.<\/p>\n

Now, sitting at home while the playoffs continue without him, Brown finds himself in relatively new territory, a space he\u2019s chosen to navigate publicly, streaming his reflections for anyone willing to listen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jaylen Brown had some lingering thoughts to get off. Less than 24 hours after Brown and the Boston Celtics blew a 3-1 lead to the Philadelphia 76ers with a Game 7 loss, Brown took to Twitch to break down highlights and discuss myriad topics. He began by praising the 76ers\u2019 former MVP center, Joel Embiid, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1916222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1916222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1916222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1916222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1916222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}