The Boston Celtics released their 2026 preseason schedule on Monday morning, and as Brad Stevens hinted a couple of weeks ago, there are two games against Jaylen Brown and his new team, the Philadelphia 76ers.
“These are not decisions you make in haste or in rush,” Stevens said back on July 6. “The Philly part … That is a hard thing to trade a guy that you, first of all, care so much about, and secondly, you have so much respect and admiration for, to a team that just beat you in the playoffs and that you're going to literally play six times before the playoffs next year with our two preseason games.”
Here’s the full preseason schedule:
Date Game Time (EST) TV
10/8 @ Cleveland 7 PM NBCS Boston
10/10 Philadelphia 8 PM NBCS Boston
10/14 Charlotte 7:30 PM NBCS Boston
10/16 @Philadelphia 7 PM NBCS Boston
Tickets go on sale Wednesday, July 22.
Now the question is, when will Brown want to make his return to Boston?
On one hand, it seems like a waste to do it in the preseason. There's no juice, no pun intended, to that kind of matchup. No one wants to waste a big return that can be heavily sold on a preseason game. That's a game one of the national partners will want to dress up and sell hard.
On the other, if he comes to Boston in October, he can do all the media he needs to do in the preseason and then refuse to talk before whenever the Sixers visit Boston first during the regular season. Brown never spoke before games in Boston, and with revenge on his mind, he might want to stay focused.
A third option is a hybrid: Come to Boston in the preseason but don’t play, and make his official return to the court during the regular season.
The regular season schedule normally comes out in early August, but the NBA is waiting for LeBron James to make his free agency decision before scheduling the marquee games. You can bet the Celtics and Sixers will get at least a couple of those prime spots.
My guess is that it’s opening night in Philadelphia, Christmas day in Boston, and then potentially an MLK Day matchup somewhere. That would put at least three of the four regular season games on national TV and give the league maximum exposure for the Jaylen Brown vs. Jayson Tatum matchup.
We’ll have to wait for the schedule to come out some time in August. Until then, we know we’re guaranteed a lot of Celtics-Sixers basketball before the playoff come around.
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