Stephen A. Smith Taking Cheap Shots At Jaylen Brown While Isiah Thomas Has His Back, Telling Stephen A. Smith To Shut His Fucking Mouth Made My Weekend

Drama! Stephen A. Smith and NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas decided to turn Twitter into their personal playground, duking it out over some spicy comments about Jaylen Brown. Because, you know, debating the underrated status of a basketball player is clearly the most pressing issue of our time.

During the riveting spectacle known as First Take, Stephen A. dramatically pulled out his secret weapon: an anonymous NBA source. This clown has made an entire second career out of doing this. (People forget Stephen A. got fired by ESPN in 2009 and was off the map for 2 years before returning to ESPN, with a whole new gimmick. When he first showed up on First and 10 (that's what First Take used to be called back then) he was the "level-headed" foil to Skip Bayless' insane takes. Upon returning, and becoming Skip's full-time partner on First Take, he was suddenly way more demonstrative and full of even hotter takes than Skip.) 

This "source" of Stephen A.'s just had to spill the tea about Brown's apparent "I-am-better-than-you" vibe, claiming it's the reason he's not the hottest commodity in the NBA market. Cue the dramatic music.

But then, out of the clouds, like Sting, came Isiah Thomas, the NBA analyst extraordinaire, swooped in to defend Brown's honor faster than you can say dropped charges. 

I actually couldn't agree more with Zeke here. 

We need to stand up as a society and put an end to "anonymous sources". 

It's the most bullshit, bush league, low blow, garbage tactic in the game. 

For some reason the only place in the world it's allowed and accepted is when it comes to the media. 

Think about if one of your friends comes to you with some slanderous accusation. "Hey bro, I can't tell you who told me, but your wife is cheating on you." You press them for where they heard such a thing and they tell you out they're not able to divulge their source. You'd kick their ass and tell them to fuck off so fast your head would spin.

If you want to go on your show, (where you're paid to make the world dumber by listening to your outrageousness on a daily basis, every morning, while people are either home from school or work sick, or collecting government checks), and you want to dog somebody and talk shit about them. Put your name on it. Say that's what you think. If you're going to repeat what somebody else told you, you clearly believe it at least somewhat. So own it. Stop being cowards.

Stephen A. of course played the victim card, and told Isaiah he had it all wrong.

Greenie will probably disagree, but I think Jaylen Brown is "overlooked" in terms of "super stardom" and marketability for two simple reasons.

1- he's not a loud-mouthed, look-at-me, asshole. He works his ass off and lets his play do the talking. He's the epitome of team first. Which leads to the #2,

2- he plays in the shadow of Jayson Tatum. A guy I argue he's better than. Especially in the playoffs. But I'm in the minority on that, as Tatum is a regular season killer, one of the most thrilling players to watch on a nightly basis, and has major star-power. If Brown is on any other team in the league he's an alpha and he's way more "marketable".