The Celtics drafted Jaylen Brown with the No. 3 overall pick in 2016. The Celtics drafted Jayson Tatum with the No. 3 overall pick a year later.
Together, they represented both the present core and the entire future of the Celtics organization, working hand-in-hand as a superstar duo and winning a championship together in 2024.
Throughout that journey, outsiders wondered how close the Jays were off the court. And while that relationship might have evolved over time, it appears to have ended on a sour note.
On Thursday, when Brown was officially introduced as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, he was asked if he’s spoken to Tatum since the trade went down more than a month ago.
“Uh, not really,” Brown answered.
That is, of course, a surprising reality, considering that the two stars worked together as the faces of the franchise for so long. But it’s also in line with what many considered or assumed to have been a professional — but not necessarily personal — relationship between Brown and Tatum.
“We won a championship together, so anybody that you win a championship [with], you would think like that’s what a brotherhood or a lifelong legacy would entail,” Brown said when asked if he and Tatum hoped their on-court partnership would continue. “Obviously, there’s ups and downs with any type of relationship, for sure. But on my end, it’s nothing but respect. Besides when he plays the Sixers, I hope he does well. But other than that, everything for me is just based on respect.”
Brown also shared some leftover distaste about how the process of being traded played out slowly at the start of the summer.
“The whole process,” Brown said when asked what bothered him about the Celtics’ handling of his availability in trades. “But to be honest, my mind is so focused on what’s in front of me. To be honest, I’m moving on. Maybe one day we’ll share the details of how everything transpired and all the moving parts that took place in this. Obviously, it’s a lot of speculation. I feel no need to chime in on it, because I’m focused on what’s in front of me.”
