Jason Kidd caused a stir when he said Jaylen Brown was the Boston Celtics’ best player after the Dallas Mavericks lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals. It was an unprompted comment that led fans to believe the Mavs coach was trying to create a rift between Brown and teammate Jayson Tatum.

During a recent appearance on “Dubs Talk: A Golden State Warriors Podcast,” Kidd explained why he said what he said and accused the media of misinterpreting his statement.

“I think he played his best then. Some people took it as me trying to set something up, but he had just been named Eastern Conference MVP and then he actually got named MVP in the Finals,” Kidd said. “I don’t know if I was wrong. But as we know, sometimes the media can take it as me trying to set something up between Jayson and Jaylen. But that wasn’t it. I just made the comment that Jaylen was playing at a high level,” (Jrue) Holiday agreed. It wasn’t like I was trying to set something up.

“But it was Jaylen. Jaylen was playing his best basketball at the right time and I made that comment,” he continued. “Some people took it as me trying to make something happen. But that wasn’t the case.”

Brown had a strong performance in five games in the NBA Finals before the Celtics hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy at TD Garden. The star guard averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, five assists and shot 44% from the field. He was named NBA Finals MVP after also being named Eastern Conference Finals MVP.

Outside rumors about whether Brown and Tatum could coexist as teammates are nothing new for the duo. But they silenced all that when they won Banner 18 and will now look to reignite it in 2025 when the Celtics look to defend their title as NBA champions.

But Brown doesn’t seem to hold any ill will toward Kidd. The two have founded a nonprofit called Oakland XChange in hopes of “creating $5 billion in assets for historically marginalized communities.”