But in this ongoing spat with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith?

Put me squarely on Team Brown.

Would it be wiser for the Celtics’ All-Star not to engage the worldwide leader’s resident provocateur? Sure. But again, that’s not Brown’s way. Like it or not, he speaks his mind. At morning shootarounds, at postgame podiums, on personal Twitch streams, when Brown has the microphone, he makes his opinions known.

Often, like his fine-worthy rants about officiating, it’s too much, and those rants don’t garner him much sympathy when he complains about other topics. But when it comes to dueling the headline-chasing “journalist” Smith, Brown made plenty of valid points.

The crux of the tete-a-tete goes back to Brown’s “favorite” season comment, but the natural (read: lazy) offshoot that came immediately from Smith targets the partnership of Brown and his fellow All-Star teammate, Jayson Tatum. And when Brown rightfully fired back about Smith connecting dots that used Tatum’s absence from Brown’s livestream as evidence they can’t work together, Smith responded again with vague threats to “report” more facts to make Brown look bad.

Brown was right to call that out, even if Smith, who long ago traded journalistic chops for entertainment ones, only revels in the notoriety.

The Brown/Tatum relationship is obviously a complicated one, but it’s also a championship one. Their personas are very clearly different — with Tatum more reserved and quiet off the court, busy raising two children; while Brown stays busy with his own off-the-court work, reflected in recently being named one of five finalists for the NBA’s Social Justice Champion Award.

On the court, Tatum was the clear alpha on that 2023-24 title-winning team … but Brown was named Finals MVP. Tatum has since spoken of how winning a second title, with a Finals MVP, drives him. Brown has made it patently obvious how much he enjoyed being the alpha Celtic in Tatum’s absence.

In other words, as much as they are different, they are similarly competitive, each in his own way. It’s OK to want what the other has, as long as they both still want a trophy. Which they do.

Brown just seems to rankle people for the way he expresses his competitiveness.

Let’s go back to the comments that fuel this chapter of his Stephen A. feud, which came soon after the Celtics were bounced out of the first round of the playoffs by losing their third straight at home in Game 7 against the 76ers.

“I mean, we blew a 3-1 lead, and yeah — we lost in the first round. We didn’t win a championship,” said Brown. “But the amount of growth, the expectations that these same [critics] have for us, is why this was my favorite year, because I got to see it in practice … The expectations for this team was to fail. The expectation was the team [would] be nothing, just to give in and to quit. And this team did the exact opposite. We fought every single day. We fought for everything.

“I’m not making no excuses. Obviously, the result — we’re not satisfied with the result … But to fight and maneuver through adversity and grow and galvanize with a bunch of guys and have that mind-set and approach, this was my favorite year. I wouldn’t say by far. By far would be a stretch, because obviously winning the championship is great, but I’m telling y’all, this was my favorite season.”

The comments landed with a thud, hinged on that word “favorite.” Pick your retread story line: It meant that he values his own success over the team, that he can’t share the spotlight, that he wants out of Boston. To my ears, while the word choice was inelegant, it said none of those things. Rather, Brown made a very defendable point about what the Celtics accomplished across the regular season.

Seriously, did you have them earning the No. 2 seed in the East when the season began, when Tatum was out with a torn Achilles tendon and the salary cap’s second apron had forced the departures of Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Al Horford?

Brown loves nothing better than proving doubters wrong. He thrives on it. That’s what he loved about the season; not Tatum’s absence, not the playoff flameout. Even pundits such as Smith should be able to hear that.

Sure, Brown puts the target on his own back. But sometimes it’s OK to leave the arrows in the quiver. This is one of those times.

Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at tara.sullivan@globe.com. Follow her @Globe_Tara.