Boston Celtics three-time All Star forward Jaylen Brown has been developing a personal rivalry with the Milwaukee Bucks two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo over the course of this season. After the latest altercation between the two elite players on Friday at TD Garden in Boston, Brown posted a cryptic, seven-word message that was seemingly directed at the Bucks superstar.
The incident came during the Celtics’ 111-105 win over Milwaukee, Boston’s third win over the Bucks in the three games the two teams have played. Incredibly, even though the game was on December 6, the two arch-rival franchises will not meet again during the 2024-2025 regular season.
Latest On-Court Clash Between the Two Stars
What happened in that game? With just under 11 minutes to go in the third quarter, Brown drove past Antetokounmpo for a layup. As the ball dropped through the hoop for two of Brown’s eventual 25 points, the Celtics star directed a “too small” gesture at his opponent, holding his palm toward the floor at about knee height.
Antetokounmpo apparently didn’t appreciate the gesture. As Brown started to sprint back on defense after the bucket, the 6’11”, 242-pound perennial All Star threw an elbow that caught Brown across the face. The officials made no call on either player, but when Brown wagged his finger at Antetokounmpo and then did it again as the two were moving up the court, Brown was hit with a technical foul.
After the game, the 28-year-old Brown — the Celtics’ 2016 first-round draft pick (third overall) out of the University of California — took to his X (formerly Twitter) account, where he has a history of posting brief but memorable, if often inscrutable, messages.
“Push the envelope and watch it bend,” Brown wrote in the post.
The message was widely seen as a challenge to Antetokounmpo, who also threw an elbow in Brown’s face the previous time the two teams met. In that incident, the Bucks star rubbed proverbial salt in the wound by extending his hand to Brown in an apologetic handshake, but then pulling it back and running it over his hair.
That game, also in Boston, resulted in a 113-107 win for the Celtics, though Brown was held to just 14 points. After that game, Brown was asked about the altercation, and Antetokounmpo’s seeming practical joke.
Brown Calls Antetokounmpo ‘a Child’
“Giannis is a child,” Brown told reporters after the November 10 clash. “I’m just focused on helping my team get a win. And that’s what we did tonight.”
So what exactly did Brown mean by his cryptic “Push the envelope and watch it bend,” tweet seemingly aimed at his Milwaukee rival? One sharp-eyed Twitter user noticed that the odd line was actually a quotation of lyrics from a song recorded by the alternative rock band Tool.
The line is taken from a song titled “Lateralus” that appears on an album of the same name, released by Tool in 2001, when Brown was just a five-year-old kid in Marietta, Georgia.
“Push the envelope / Watch it bend,” the song says. “Overthinking, overanalyzing, separates the body from the mind / Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must / Feed my will to feel my moment.”
Does knowing that those were the lyrics Brown was referencing in his seven-word message to Antetokounmpo make it any clearer? Or is it a motivational message directed at himself? Presumably, only Brown can definitively answer that question.
