Jayson Tatum said he was “just as much caught off guard as the rest of the world” by Jaylen Brown’s trade to the Philadelphia 76ers.
Brown didn’t seem to believe him.
The Celtic-turned-Sixer commented with a “cap” emoji on a video from Tatum’s “Summer of Jayson” docuseries shared by Bleacher Report.
In the clip, Tatum explained that he was at a workout in Las Vegas this offseason when he got word that Brown — his teammate for the previous nine years — had been traded to Philly.
“(Celtics assistant God Shammgod Jr.) walks over, he hands me the towel, he’s like, ‘Yo, put this over your face. Don’t react. They just traded him,'” Tatum said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, (expletive).’ I’m like, ‘Where?’ He said, ‘Philly.’ I was like, ‘You traded him down the street?’ So I was just as much caught off guard as the rest of the world.”
> [
>
> View this post on Instagram
>
>
>
> ](https://www.instagram.com/reel/De0YYYAO--u/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading)
It wasn’t clear which aspect of Tatum’s recollection Brown took issue with — that he was surprised Brown was traded, or that he was surprised the Celtics specifically traded him to the 76ers, an Atlantic Division rival that had just eliminated Boston in the opening round of the NBA playoffs.
Brown left his comment after his new club overcame a 29-point deficit to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 114-106 on Thursday night.
Later in the video, Tatum expressed his appreciation for Brown, saying they made each other better during their near-decade together in Boston. The pair led the Celtics to two NBA Finals and won a championship in 2024.
“I very much have been transparent about how thankful I personally am for our relationship and what we were able to accomplish over nine years,” Tatum said. “You talk about 2017 to 2025 or 6 — Jayson and Jaylen. Like, you won’t ever be able to talk about one of us without the other. And just our ability to grow up as kids and go through our ups and downs, and people talking about (how) one of us had to go and we couldn’t win together.
“There was a lot of (expletive) that we had to deal with, and I will always say I knew every time I stepped on that court that, when it was time to go to war, I looked to my left and my right and No. 7 was over there, I knew that he was going to do whatever it took for us to try to win. The way that we pushed each other — I definitely made him better, and he made me better, and we made our team better. We made this organization better. We won a championship. Like, we are forever stitched in stone in NBA history. We held up that trophy. It won’t ever be forgotten.”
The Celtics and 76ers met twice during the preseason, but Tatum and Brown did not face each other in either game (the latter sat out the first matchup at TD Garden; the former did the same in the rematch at Xfinity Mobile Arena). Their first of four regular-season meetings is set for Nov. 10 in Philadelphia.