Gary Payton isn’t buying the idea that the Celtics made the right call by keeping Jayson Tatum and shipping Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia. The Hall of Fame guard didn’t hold back when talking about Boston’s decision to trade Brown to a division rival, and he thinks the Celtics might end up regretting it.
On Sirius XM NBA Radio, Payton laid out exactly why he sees this as a potential disaster for Boston.
“The Boston Celtics made a choice. They went with Tatum. That was who they had to be,” Payton said. “I don’t think that relationship was really there. They had to do it. Once Brown started talking and doing that about the media, I don’t think that relationship could have got fixed. It was already done. They just had to move on. They chose Tatum over him and they shipped him. The crazy thing to me is that they shipped him to the Eastern Conference. I would have never shipped him in there to kill me.”
Payton wasn’t done. He pointed out that Brown is going to be fueled by this slight every time he sees green.
“I think he’s going to be very, very angry about that, and every time he plays them, he’s going to get at them, especially if they get a boy like LeBron to come over there. They’re going to be very scary because they have four guys now that’s very scary. And if they keep them all on the floor, it’s going to be hard to beat the 76ers,” Payton concluded.
Kevin Garnett Thinks Boston Will Second-Guess This Trade
Payton isn’t the only Hall of Famer who sees a problem here. Kevin Garnett, who won a title with the Celtics in 2008, compared the Brown trade to the Timberwolves dealing Karl-Anthony Towns in 2024. On his KG Certified podcast, Garnett said he was disappointed Boston broke up a roster that worked.
“It’s like Minnesota kicking themselves over the KAT trade. I think Boston gonna look back on this. It’s like when KD left Golden State and then he turned around like what the f***, like this one of the moments where you don’t break a great thing up,” Garnett said. “This is a great thing. They just had to you know and then two, man. Keep it real man those two have been tested through the think time and time.”
Garnett also warned that relationships between stars don’t have to be perfect to work.
“So this is just relationship it ain’t always going to be great. You know what I’m saying? But it would have to be something detrimental for me to break that up.”
The Celtics decided Tatum was their franchise cornerstone and Brown was expendable. But trading him to a 76ers team that already has Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey — and might add LeBron James — means Boston will face a motivated, angry version of Brown four times a season and potentially in the playoffs.
The 2026–27 season is shaping up to be a revenge tour for Jaylen Brown. And the Celtics are going to have to deal with it every step of the way.
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