The Boston Celtics made a move Wednesday that sent Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks. And if you thought that was the end of the story, you haven’t seen Brad Stevens’s Instagram lately.
Because he deleted it. Or deactivated it. Either way, the Celtics executive’s account is gone.
Celtics fans didn’t exactly love the return for Brown. Online reaction was fast and brutal, and Stevens’s comment section was reportedly getting hammered. By Thursday morning, his page was no longer accessible. A screenshot posted by a Celtics fan account shows a message that says “Sorry, this page isn’t available.” Stevens hasn’t commented publicly on why he pulled the plug, but it’s not hard to connect the dots.
The return that left everyone scratching their heads
Paul George is a good player. He had some moments in last year’s playoffs, including a few strong games against the Celtics themselves. But Brown is 27, coming off an All-NBA season, and widely considered one of the two-way wings you build around. George turns 35 next season and is making nearly the same money. The draft picks are nice, but they’re not guaranteed to turn into anything close to Brown.
So the question is: did Stevens get enough? The early answer from fans and pundits is a pretty clear no.
Brown himself has been active on social media lately, liking a post that said he should be traded and resharing a video claiming he was Boston’s best player, not Jayson Tatum. So maybe the split was coming either way. But that doesn’t make the return feel any better to a fanbase that just watched their team ship out a homegrown star for an aging wing and some lottery tickets.
What comes next for Boston
There’s already chatter that Stevens might flip those picks for a win-now piece. New Orleans wing Trey Murphy III has been mentioned as a potential target, according to league sources. But flipping picks for a role player doesn’t exactly erase the sting of losing Brown.
For now, Stevens is keeping his head down. Literally. His Instagram is gone, his phone is probably blowing up, and Celtics fans aren’t exactly sending him thank-you notes. The real test will come when the season starts and we see whether this gamble pays off or becomes another chapter in Boston’s long history of trades that aged poorly.
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