Jaylen Brown is officially a Philadelphia 76er, and the paperwork isn’t the only thing making the move feel real now. On Monday, as the trade became final, ESPN’s Shams Charania dropped a pretty blunt assessment of what had been going on between Brown and Jayson Tatum behind the scenes during their last season together in Boston.
Charania went on The Stephen A. Smith Show and didn’t sugarcoat it. He said the two were still great on the court — no issues there — but off it? Basically nothing.
“It is a tale of two different people. For the longest time, over ten years, nine years together, they both worked amazingly on the court together. On the court, they were great. But over the last year, that personal relationship was as close to nonexistent as you could have, but on the court they were amazing, hard-working professionals together,” Charania said.
That timing lines up with something Tatum himself said Tuesday night. He was at the Newton Community Stage promoting his new children’s book, Baby Dunks a Lot: The Day the Basketball Stopped Bouncing, when he got honest with Howard Bryant about what it’s like losing a teammate you’ve had for basically your whole career.
“The NBA is an incredible business, it’s an incredible job, but there are some downsides to the business and moments like this, where you just kind of feel like you’re going to be on the team with somebody, because that’s all you know,” Tatum said. “And then it’s just like, one day you find out that they’re no longer on your team anymore. And, we’re all humans. We feel all those emotions. Going into the facility, and knowing that you have different teammates, and somebody that you’ve been to war with, essentially, is on a different team…”
Tatum made a point to say he still appreciates everything Brown gave the Celtics. The 2024 title, the deep playoff runs, the whole run. He called it “super successful” and said Brown gave great years to Boston. But he also admitted it’s tough seeing that partnership end so abruptly.
For what it’s worth, previous reporting said Brown never asked for a trade. The Celtics explored deals with multiple teams over the offseason before landing on Philadelphia as the destination. Brown had been part of one of the longest-running star pairings in the league, and now he’s headed to a Sixers team that clearly thinks he can help them get over the hump in the East.
Tatum is staying. That much was never really in doubt. But the whole situation is a reminder that even when two guys win a title together, the personal side of the relationship can be completely different from what fans see on the floor. They played like a duo. They just didn’t live like one.
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