Jaylen Brown just wants to know what it was that got him traded after he just finished the best season of his career and carried the Boston Celtics to a 56-win season without co-star Jayson Tatum for much of the year.
In his first public comments since he was shockingly traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, Brown said there had to be “more to it” than his play on the court. And in Brown’s mind, the saga that led to him being dealt to the 76ers wasn’t a fair turn of events.
“There was definitely a message being sent, and that message was received,” the five-time All-Star said Thursday on his Twitch stream. “I wasn’t thrilled with the amount of respect that was shown during this process.
“I think there was a bit of a lack of respect. It was fine at one point, and then out of nowhere things just kind of went left. I think (team president of basketball operations) Brad (Stevens) is probably getting a lot of the criticism. I wasn’t thrilled with the way he facilitated some of the conversations. But I definitely think there’s more to it.”
Whatever that “more” was, Brown said Stevens didn’t tell him.
“I just wish that the ‘more to it’ could have been explained to me,” Brown, the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, said on the stream. “If ‘the more to it’ was explained, I think I would have understood. I thought I earned enough respect to get that explanation, but hey, obviously I was wrong.”
Why did the Celtics trade Jaylen Brown?
Jay King and Jeshua Kidd
With Tatum sidelined for much of the 2025-26 season recovering from a torn Achilles, Brown averaged career highs of 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists, leading Boston to the No. 2 seed in the East. But the Celtics fell in the first round after blowing a 3-1 lead to the 76ers.
A day after the series defeat, Brown said on Twitch that this was his “favorite year” because of the way he and the team fought through adversity, a thought he repeated Thursday despite receiving backlash for ranking this season ahead of the Celtics’ title year with Tatum healthy. Brown did not mention his former co-star’s name during Thursday’s 51-minute stream.
“Still was my favorite season so far,” Brown said Thursday. “Next year may be different, but this past season was still my favorite season.”
Brown was then included in a trade package to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Bucks, which Milwaukee considered before choosing to send Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat.
Now, Brown will don the 76ers’ blue after being traded for Paul George, two first-round draft picks (2028 and 2031) and two second-round draft picks (2028 and 2030).
“I’ve been programmed to hate Philadelphia,” Brown said. “From the history of the rivalry to just the playoff battles, all of the above. The Process, I’ve been programmed to be like, ‘Man, f— The Process.’ So it’s funny now. I gotta reverse engineer that.
“That’s the part that’s gonna take some time.”
After the 76ers knocked Boston out of the playoffs, Brown said on a May livestream that star center Joel Embiid “still flopped entirely, way too much,” while also calling him “one of the best bigs in f—ing basketball history.”
He’ll have to rewire that relationship as well, though he said he has already taken steps with some of his new teammates. Brown said he spoke with Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe about being ready for the next chapter together, and that “there’s work to be done.” He also called both of his new teammates during Thursday’s stream.
One thing was clear: while he tries to navigate the path forward, he still doesn’t have the answers from the past.
“I wish that my integrity and character hadn’t been attacked so much during this whole process,” he said.
