Solely Stephen A. Smith advantages from Jaylen Brown feud

Media

Smith and Brown’s Twitch/ESPN beef continued into this week.

Of all of the annoying parts from this Jaylen Brown-Stephen A. Smith contretemps (I imagine that’s French for “ridiculous he-said/he-said feud that makes all of us who learn about it incrementally dumber,” however don’t maintain me to it), two particularly are actually … nicely, annoying me.

High quality, three, in case you embrace Smith’s whole schtick. However that has lengthy gone with out saying, as extra issues ought to.

First, I suppose we should supply the Reader’s Digest condensed recap of this entire back-and-forth between the Celtics star and ESPN’s lead bloviator.

Brown hopped on his Twitch stream the evening the Celtics misplaced Sport 7 of their first-round collection to the 76ers, and amongst different feedback, reiterated one thing he had been saying since late December: that this was his favourite season.

Smith referred to as him out (accurately, I would add with some reluctance) for saying such a factor after a crushing loss and a blown 3-1 lead within the collection.

Their Twitch/ESPN duel on the matter — sigh — continued into this previous week. Final Sunday evening, Brown once more referred to as for Smith to retire (not a foul thought) and accused him of being “the face of clickbait media” (he’s definitely on the Mount Rushmore).

“Man, [expletive] Stephen A. Stephen A, Stephen B, Stephen C,” mentioned Brown. “My supply nonetheless stands. You need me to be quiet and cease streaming? Properly, I would like you to be quiet and get off these networks. Since you’re not utilizing your platform to do actual journalism. You’re utilizing your platform to make use of clickbait.”

The following morning on ESPN’s “First Take,” Smith volleyed again, including what sounded, pathetically, like a menace.

“However, ultimately, Jaylen Brown watch out what you would like for,” mentioned Smith. “You really need me to begin reporting on that degree? The locker room, how the group would possibly take into consideration you, how the town might really feel about you, how Jayson Tatum might or might not really feel about you. Sneaker offers, endorsement offers, the checklist goes on and on.”

Now, it’s extremely lame for Smith to recommend he has some beautiful revelations about Brown. How “the town might really feel about you”? As somebody who’s on the report as favoring a Brown-for-Giannis Antetokounmpo commerce if potential, I can affirm what anybody round right here seemingly already knew: Boston loves Brown, partially as a participant, however much more so for his connect with the town. Lame factor to say, and incorrect.

However that’s not even one of many two parts of this story that bug me probably the most. The primary is that giving this “feud” oxygen, ink, and bandwidth advantages solely Smith. I get Brown’s want to throw just a few verbal haymakers in Smith’s route, and he definitely deserves them, but it surely’s taking part in proper into his palms. He’s unfathomably nicely compensated at ESPN, however his major foreign money is consideration. With out the latter, the previous wouldn’t have have occurred.

The opposite gripe? Brown calling Smith a journalist.

“This isn’t journalism,” mentioned Brown on Monday. “That is him making his personal opinion and [formulating] it about what I’ve to say, on his platform. And this is the reason, respectfully, lots of people say, ‘[expletive] Stephen A.’ As a result of that is the kind of stuff he does, after which he doesn’t acknowledge it.”

He’s not incorrect there. However Smith — and ESPN’s speaking heads, and sports activities radio hosts for that matter — aren’t journalists. They’re entertainers. Information solely matter when they’re handy to their argument.

I do know, the traces are blurred, maybe completely and sometimes by design, with so many professional reporters feeling like they have to be content material producers and types to outlive on this panorama. And I can’t think about there was a time over the past a number of a long time during which media literacy total has been at a decrease level.

However suggesting Smith is a journalist is a misreading of his function — and an affront to precise journalists nonetheless doing the job with integrity.

Welcome again

Medford native Lauren Walsh is becoming a member of Boston 25 as a sports activities media journalist.

She’s a Syracuse graduate and former NESN intern who spent the previous three years at WSMV in Nashville.

“Youthful Lauren wouldn’t imagine it,” she wrote whereas asserting the transfer on her social media channels, noting that she used to put on “Restricted Too ‘athletics’ gear to Sox video games as a child as a result of they didn’t promote workforce gear within the ladies’ clothes part again then.”

Walsh beforehand labored at WXII in Winston-Salem, N.C., earlier than heading to Nashville in August 2023. She additionally has labored as a sports activities anchor/reporter in Burlington, Vt., and Syracuse, N.Y.

She didn’t say when her begin date will probably be.