Stephen A. Smith pulled up to First Take and asked the question Celtic Pride is supposed to make off-limits: should Boston trade Jaylen Brown for Giannis Antetokounmpo, straight up?
His answer was unambiguous.
"I do. I really do," Stephen A. said. "It's not as simple as Giannis being, when healthy, one of the dominant players to have ever played this game. He played 36 games this year. It was a bad year for him. He still averaged 27 and 9. That's who we're talking about here with the greatness of Giannis Antetokounmpo."
Stephen A. then laid out the basketball case as he sees it. The Celtics, he argued, are dangerously thin in the frontcourt outside of Kristaps Porzingis - or 'Kada' as he referred to him - and have leaned too hard on a three-point-or-bust offence under Joe Mazzulla.
"Other than Kada, who do you have if you're the Boston Celtics in terms of your front line?" Stephen A. asked. "You going to bring us Luke Kornet? You need more than that. Secondly, the reliance on the three-point shot, the living and the dying with the three-point shot if you're Joe Mazzulla - that has to change. You don't have Steph Curry and Klay Thompson as your back court. You can't just live and die with the three like that, which is what the Boston Celtics did. I think that's problematic."
Then came the Jaylen Brown part. Stephen A. circled back to comments Brown made in the immediate aftermath of Boston blowing a 3-1 series lead and getting eliminated by the 76ers - the franchise's first-ever 3-1 collapse in 18 championships of history.
"When you are two years removed from being a champion and being an NBA Finals MVP, and two years later when you're playing without Jason Tatum for about 62 games and you go to the postseason and you get bounced out in the first round - it's the Boston Celtics, the most storied franchise in the history of basketball with 18 championships," Stephen A. said. "Never have they lost a 3-1 lead until just now. And it was with Jason Tatum on the bench in Game 7 and Jaylen Brown was the bus driver. And you go on the air inside of 24 hours and call this your favourite season. I don't know how you come back from that."
That is the moment Stephen A. closed his pitch.
"I think if you're the Boston Celtics and you have an opportunity to pair Giannis with Jason Tatum, you do it for an abundance of basketball reasons - to change his style of play and other stuff like that. But also, Jaylen Brown clearly loves driving the bus. Let him drive somewhere else."
Cam'ron, sitting alongside him, said the case was strong but he could not get all the way there.
"I'm torn on this topic," Cam'ron said. "The last time we seen the healthy Jason Tatum along with Jaylen Brown, they actually won a championship. So I don't know if you want to split this up right away because we know when both are healthy, they have the potential to win a championship. But when you have the opportunity to get Giannis, you don't want to also take up missing out on the opportunity to get Giannis. You have to think though - is this where Giannis wants to be?"
Cam'ron pointed to Giannis house-hunting in New York earlier in the off-season as evidence the two-time MVP may have other ideas. Jay Williams used that opening to ask Stephen A. about a different scenario: what if the Knicks reach the Finals and lose?
Stephen A. did not flinch.
"I would give up damn near anything for Giannis in New York City," he said. "I love me some Karl-Anthony Towns and I'm very proud of how Mikal Bridges has resurrected himself. But am I giving both of them up for a healthy Giannis? Hell to the yes. I ain't going to lie to you... To me, when healthy, he is one of the top five players on the planet Earth."
Williams agreed Giannis remains a 30-and-12 type and should never be 'off the table' in an arms race, but cautioned that the Knicks have 'unfinished business' before getting into trade talks.
Stephen A. closed by reminding everyone what Boston would actually have to send out.
"As great as Jaylen Brown is, and he is great, he ain't worth Giannis straight up," he said. "If you're going to get Giannis to Boston, you're talking about a Pritchard or somebody. You're talking about a couple of picks along with Jaylen Brown. Milwaukee is going to demand more than that. Let's get that straight."
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/stephen-a-celtics-jaylen-brown-giannis-trade-tatum-may-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
