Boston’s Jaylen Brown claims he was misquoted on last season’s woes

After fan pushback over his comments casting blame for last season at the feet of the front office, Jaylen Brown claims he was misquoted by Heavy’s Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson.

The saga just won’t end.

It seems Boston Celtics fourth-year wing Jaylen Brown takes issue with how his response to a particularly polarizing question was framed regarding his thoughts on who was to blame for last season’s struggles.

The seemingly-endless Kyrie Irving drama came back to life earlier this week when Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson interviewed Brown, and the Georgia native’s answer stirred up a lot of strong emotions from fans.

The comments in question affixed the blame for Boston’s 2018-19 woes to the front office and coaching staff, a position taken by those persons themselves.

Even still, there was pushback from fans that it was a bad look to explicitly throw others under the bus, prompting Brown’s response on Wednesday to the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn.

“I think it was a misquote, for sure, but to be honest I’m tired of talking about it and tired of being asked about it,” said the Cal-Berkeley product.

“It definitely, I would say, was a misquote. It didn’t come off the way I said it, the way it was written with a narrative where [the writer] already wrote the story the way he wanted to write the story but it definitely wasn’t intended in that manner.”

“But I’m tired of being asked about it to be honest,” Brown added for emphasis.

Robinson’s reply on WEEI’s Dale and Keefe radio show denied any mischaracterization, instead suggesting the young wing was in damage control mode after the stir his words allegedly created.

His words:

“New York is my market, don’t hate me, but I have a great respect for Boston at large, and you guys are passionate fans, you guys love your stars, criticize them, hate them if they need to be, but Jaylen Brown said that to me, which he did, and he kind of wanted to condescend things, I get it.

Jaylen is 23 years old, Jaylen Brown is looking to compete for a championship in the next couple of years with Boston. I would say I’d probably say the same thing. I don’t agree with him, but I get where he was going with it.”

For more of Robinson’s response, check the full show linked here.

Whatever the case may be, it’s likely future such interview questions on the topic will be met with “no comment” from any player approached on the issue going forward.

It seems fans, analysts, and reporters alike have hit the same wall the players have on this issue, and further inquiry on the topic — at least in the short term — is unlikely to yield much more than irritated interviewees.

It’s not uncommon for phrases edited out of their full context to create an incomplete picture of a sensitive topic despite everyone’s best intentions, and that may be case here, too.

But the ongoing displeasure that seems to arise every time the topic is brought up again is perhaps, as much as anything else has been, a sign to let the controversy die a quiet death, as the team has repeatedly requested.