Just a day after losing the first round series, Boston Celtics Jaylen Brown aired his frustration on his Twitch channel. It included a thorough review of Game 7 as he called out the referees for their officiating and even said 76ers Joel Embiid was flopping. Since then, fans and analysts like Stephen A. Smith have chimed in, and now 4x NBA champion Draymond Green is picking sides.
On Sunday, Brown accused his Sixers rival and stated he had “ruined our game.” “Joel Embiid is a great player. One of the best bigs in basketball history. [But he] flops. He know it,” Brown said. “This ain’t breaking news. It is what it is.” The Celtics suffered an epic collapse in the 2026 NBA playoffs, squandering a 3-1 series lead and losing at home to the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of their first-round series. Now, Green stated that the callout from Brown was “interesting” because he agreed that Embiid would embellish some calls a bit.
“However, as you all know, not a huge fan of calling the guy out once you lost,” he admitted on the latest episode of The Draymond Green Show. “I just don’t love that because it comes off as excuse-making. A lot of people are trying to say, ‘Oh man, Jaylen Brown making an excuse.’ When you, in fact, could be telling the dead honest truth, but because you lost, people are always going to say there’s the excuse. It ultimately doesn’t hold weight. And I feel like you end up wasting one of your bullets because it doesn’t hold weight anyway because you lost. ”
It’s true that Draymond Green doesn’t like NBA stars providing excuses once they lose. He gave this advice last year to Rockets’ Sengun. The Turkish center said that the Warriors were “crying all series about fouls” and used their veteran status to manipulate the officiating. Draymond Green responded to “Hold that L” in a Threads post. The 4x NBA champion further argued that “you have to win” to make such comments, asserting that they are “tough thing[s] to say after you lose.” Similar sentiment and advice that he recently gave to Jaylen Brown. And just as Green predicted, the Celtics star received a lot of flak for his statement against Embiid, starting from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
“Bro, you get paid over $300 million. You were an MVP candidate,” said Smith on First Take. “The point is, when something like that happens, you cannot have that residue of that experience you’re griping about, Joel Embiid flopping. That is not why the Boston Celtics lost.” The veteran broadcaster explained how the Celtics lost because they live and die by the 3. With just over two minutes left in the game, they cut the Sixers’ lead to 99-98. Overall, Boston missed 11 of its last 12 shots and was a horrible 13-49 from 3-point range in Game 7. This was the real reason for their loss.
Joel Embiid finished the night with a dominant 34 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists, anchoring a Philadelphia offense that also saw 30 points from Tyrese Maxey. Brown’s “flopping” accusations are valid. Embiid has long faced criticism for his ability to draw fouls, a skill he views as high-level basketball IQ, to the disdain of his opponents. In this decisive Game 7, the 76ers utilized that physicality to survive. But the Celtics star didn’t view that and even called out the officials.
Jaylen Brown put the refs on notice again
JB finished Game 7 with a team-high 33 points. But he had missed four consecutive shots in the last five minutes. Instead of critiquing his own game, He wasted no time in taking a dig at the officiating crew. Jaylen Brown spoke out against an “agenda” being built against him.
“Do you know how many players do that? That’s the common play, a basketball play,” Brown said about the push off. It’s not the first time that Brown has made a statement against the referees. The NBA fined him $35,000 in January 2026 for public criticism of officiating. It seems more fines are coming his way, as the league is open to investigation.
