Picked up pieces while wondering when Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown turned into Kendrick Lamar and Drake …
Celtics basketball boss Brad Stevens shocked Celtic Nation and rattled NBA America on July 1 when — in the name of the dreaded Second Apron — he traded Jaylen Brown to the Sixers for Paul George and four future first-, and second-round draft picks.
The seismic deal had Celtics fans asking, “where’s the return?,” and led to LeBron James selecting Philadelphia as his final NBA hometown. As the Celtics prepare for their opener, Tuesday afternoon (?!) in Detroit, aftershocks from the Brown deal continue to reverberate.
Plain and simple: the Brown trade colors all conversations about the 2026-27 Celtics.
So Brad … how was your summer?
“Hard decisions cause a lot of sleepless nights,” Stevens said. “That’s part of it. Obviously, there was a lot of wrestling with emotions there for a while. When our [practice] court got redone and the guys started coming in, we just started getting really focused on this group.”
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Was fallout from the Brown deal more than you expected, and has it lasted longer than you expected?
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “I’m a basketball fan by nature. I was born and raised in a place [Indiana] where I was living and dying with my teams and those players on those teams were the people that I looked up to and wanted to root for. So I get it. It’s one of the parts about this that I really struggle with in this role. Sometimes what you feel like might be the right decision for your group is going to be really hard and you may not want to do it. That’s just part of it, so I totally understand and I totally have the utmost love for our fans and I certainly want the Celtics every time we take the floor to be as good as we can be. You have to be sustainably good over the long run and this particular move was an opportunity to do that however painful it felt at the time.”
Related: Joe Mazzulla already seeing dividends from taking a different view this Celtics preseason
What about the notion of trading a superstar to a division rival — then having James join that rival as a result of your trade?
“You focus on our team,” Stevens said. “You focus on your best returns and opportunities and you make a decision. You weigh everything together, but we can’t control necessarily what happens in other decisions or deals.”
How do you feel about this year’s team?
“I’m the same that I usually am,” he said. “I look at it both from a fan’s perspective where I’m excited to see them come together and from my old coach’s perspective that says we’ve got a lot of details that we need to continue to work on and improve. I really trust that we will. I think we have a lot of good players and a lot of depth which to me in important in this particular era of basketball. We have a chance to be a really good basketball team … I like our team.”
How do you like George so far?
“He’s been great,” Stevens said. “He’s really brought a lot of experience and a lot of positive to the group. Any time you have a major change, a major transition, it’s not going to be just snap your fingers and it works right away. He brings a lot of uniqueness to our team. He’s a really accomplished, really good player. … He’s going to play a huge role on this team. There’s no doubt about it.”
Related: First impressions are encouraging after seeing the Celtics’ new first unit in action
Mitchell Robinson’s free throw woes?
“We have a lot of people spending a lot of time with him, but I do think a lot of people get focused on one area and miss the 10 areas that he does great,” Stevens said. “He’s going to work hard and he wants to be great but at the end of the day we’re going to appreciate him for who he is, first and foremost.”
In conversations about his team, Stevens repeatedly comes back to two major themes: depth and roster sustainability.
Before letting Stevens go, I asked about the Tatum-Brown relationship. The more we watch and learn, the more it seems like the two Jays detest one another with the power of a thousand suns (Have you seen the ice cold video of JB and JT pretending not to notice one another while they warmed up before last Saturday’s preseason game at the Garden?)
Stevens’s response to the growing notion that his bookend stars hated one another at the end: “They had an amazing nine-year run together. They accomplished an incredible amount together. To do that, you have to be really compatible in so many ways.”
▪ Quiz: 1. Name six NFL franchises with at least 16 playoff appearances in this century; 2: Name three relief pitchers to win the Cy Young and MVP awards in the same season (answers below).
▪ Glad Stevens is optimistic about George. He knows a ton more about basketball than just about anyone. While admitting that it’s a mistake to make judgments based on a couple of preseason games, watching George play twice at the Garden was downright painful. Reminds me of the final days of Artis Gilmore with the Celtics in 1987-88. That’s when the Globe’s estimable Peter May dubbed Gilmore, “Rigor-Artis.”
▪ The Jets have lost 18 of their last 20 games against the Patriots. They are 0-6 against the AFC East in the Aaron Glenn era and 13-47 in the past 10 years against the Patriots, Dolphins, and Bills. Since 2016, they are 4-26 in division road games.
One of the 2001 Patriots champions welcomed back at Gillette Stadium last Sunday by owner Bob Kraft was new Hall of Famer Adam Vinatieri.
One of the 2001 Patriots champions welcomed back at Gillette Stadium last Sunday by owner Bob Kraft was new Hall of Famer Adam Vinatieri.
▪ Nice to see so many members of the Super Bowl champion 2001 Patriots at Gillette last Sunday. It’s unfortunate that there wasn’t any sign of Tom Brady nor Bill Belichick in the building, not even a video. Nor a mention. Shows you how badly things ended here for both. Such a Boston thing. Similarly, Terry Francona and Curt Schilling — heroes of the Curse-busting 2004 Red Sox — are unlikely to come back for a 25th anniversary moment at Fenway in 2029. And what are the chances that JB comes back to the Garden to be part of the 10th anniversary of Banner 18 in 2034? Brown did not play in the 76ers preseason game at the Garden last weekend but was on the bench. He’ll be back Jan. 21 when the Sixers first visit during the regular season and the C’s will feature a JB tribute on the big board before the game. Did any of you see Brown’s cameo on the first episode of ABC’s season premiere of “Abbott Elementary”?
▪ Bob Kraft’s Patriots have been to 11 Super Bowls since 1996. There are 11 NFL franchises that have not been to a single Super Bowl in that three-decade window — Bills, Browns, Cowboys, Lions, Texans, Jaguars, Chargers, Dolphins, Vikings, Jets, and Commanders.
▪ The Wall Street Journal’s Jayson Gay channeled his inner-Leigh Montville after Mike Ditka passed Oct. 9 at the age of 86: “He looked like he was smoking a cigar even when he wasn’t smoking a cigar. … His resting face said: Get out of my face. … His sunglasses looked stolen from the glove box of a detective’s Crown Vic." Nobody writes sports like this anymore. Lesley Visser, like Montville a former Globie, covered the NFL with Ditka for many years at CBS Sports and shared this: “Every week, after The NFL Today, we’d all go out for a drink in New York City. One time a homeless man on the street yelled out, ‘Mike Ditka, what’s the greatest nation on earth?’ Mike said, ‘The United Nations!” The guy stuck out his cup and said, ‘No, man. A Doe-nation.’ Mike laughed and put $500 in his cup.” How many of you knew that Saturday Night Live’s “Swerski’s Superfans” sketch — best known as “Da Bears” — was created in part by Illinois native Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”)?
Truly legendary stuff#WinOurWay pic.twitter.com/XEApEPruVJ
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 15, 2026
▪ The $420-million-payroll-Dodgers were dealt a big blow in Wednesday’s Game 3 of the NLCS when the Brewers’ Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell erased a 2-1 deficit with back-to-back seventh-inning homers off lefthander Blake Snell. It was only the second time in his 11-year career that Snell gave up two homers to lefty hitters in the same game. The other instance? The Red Sox’ Rafael Devers hit a pair off Snell in May 2023 when he was pitching for the Padres.
▪ Milwaukee reached the playoffs only four times in its first 49 seasons. In nine seasons since acquiring Christian Yelich, the Brew Crew have made the playoffs eight times. The Brewers’ only World Series was a seven-game loss to the Cardinals in 1982. There are 10 native Californians on Milwaukee’s 26-man NLCS roster. The Dodgers have five.
▪ In this year’s ALDS vs. the White Sox, Cleveland became the ninth MLB team to recover from an 0-2 deficit in a five-game Division Series. The Red Sox of 1999 (vs. Cleveland), and 2003 (vs. Oakland) also turned the trick.
▪ Let the record show that the Yankees scored five runs in three ALDS losses to the Rays after scoring 18 runs in two wild card games against the Sons of Chad Tracy.
▪ Bet Schill is furious Roger Clemens beat him to the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Related: Globe Magazine: Shunned by baseball’s Hall of Fame, Roger Clemens is seeking a new chapter at 64
▪ Seven-Years-Of-College-Down-The-Drain-Note of the Week: Syracuse quarterback Malachi Nelson made his first Power 4 start last weekend vs. Virginia, led the Orange to a 17-7 halftime lead, then had to come out when he injured his shoulder in the second half. Virginia won, 28-25. Nelson spent the last three seasons as a backup for Southern Cal, Boise State, and Texas El-Paso.
▪ The vaunted Texas Longhorns football program has won only one national championship in the last 55 years.
▪ The Nets, Nuggets, Pacers and Spurs — all of whom joined the NBA from the ABA in 1976 — are rolling out vintage ABA uniforms for select games in the 2026-27 NBA season. Julius Erving, Dan Issel, and George Gervin no doubt will be pleased.
▪ USA Today ranked the Bruins as the seventh-best team in the NHL in its recent power rankings.
▪ Justice: Marist Catholic High School in Oregon fired varsity football coach Zach Loboy after he ordered an onside kick while his team was leading Cottage Grove High, 57-0, late in the second-quarter of a 63-0 blowout victory (the game was called at halftime) last week in Eugene.
Related: Globe Sports: High Schools
▪ Give me Newton native Veronica Burton (granddaughter of the Patriots’ first draftee, Ron Burton) and the Valkyries over the insufferable Angel Reese and the Dream in the WNBA Finals.
▪ Bragging rights from the Cape Cod Baseball League: Tampa Bay has the most Cape League Alums in the MLB Final Four with 10. Eight Guardians (including Steven Kwan), five Dodgers (including Will Smith and Max Muncy), and four Brewers played summer ball on the Cape. The CCBL’s annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held at Wequassett Resort in Harwich on Nov. 15. This year’s inductees are Seth Etherton (Angels), Grant Green (Athletics, Giants, Nationals, White Sox, Marlins), Kevin Nicholson (Padres), Matt Goyen, and John Garner. For ticket information, go to www.capecodleague.com.
▪ A week from Sunday (Oct. 25) at 1 p.m., yours truly will host a panel discussion with WBZ’s Steve Burton and Newton North varsity football coach Nick Capodilupo after a screening of the film “Friday Night Lights” at West Newton Cinema. To purchase tickets in advance, go to www.westnewtoncinema.com.
▪ RIP Patriot Hall of Famer, Jon Morris, an all-star center who played in New England for 11 seasons and was the Patriots’ first /Pro Bowler. A 1964 graduate of Holy Cross, Morris was the Pats’ radio color commentator from 1979-87.
▪ Quiz answers: 1. Patriots (19), Packers (19), Eagles (18), Steelers (17) Ravens (16), Seahawks (16); 2: Rollie Fingers (Brewers, 1981), Willie Hernandez (Tigers, ’84), Dennis Eckersley (Athletics, ’92).