It was the Celtics’ 81st home opener and the first Garden game without Jaylen Brown in 10 years.
Still, JB managed to be a presence when the world champion New York Knicks came out for the opening tip against the Green on Friday night. Brown managed to make himself the center of attention while enjoying a night off in his new Philadelphia home (the JB Sixers are 2-0).
In case you hadn’t heard, Brown was traded to the Sixers way back on July 1. But he’s still a topic here in the Hardwood Hub of parquet floorboards.
Quite simply, the drama never stops with Jayson Tatum and Brown.
Teammates for nine seasons in Boston, the two Jays have become hated rivals on par with Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake.
You would think there’d be a lot of basketball talk before a Celtics home opener against New York’s new champs. The Celtics were hoping to make things right after blowing a 22-point lead in their opening afternoon loss in Detroit on Tuesday, and the Knicks wanted to atone for blowing their banner-raising opener vs. JB and the Sixers on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.
But we were not talking hoops in the hours before tipoff. The pregame buzz in and around the New Garden centered on a weird X post by Brown in the wake of Tatum releasing a video in which he claimed he was totally out of the loop when Brown was traded.
Tatum’s video featured him saying he didn’t know anything about the Brown trade until July 1.
“I was just as much caught off guard as the rest of the world,’’ claimed Tatum.
This prompted Brown to fire off a pointed X post in which he basically called Tatum a liar. Brown’s salvo was packaged in Gen Z code, adorned with a blue baseball cap which evidently meant Brown thinks Tatum is lying.
Shots fired. It’s as if Jaylen Brown has become a left-leaning Curt Schilling. The man can’t resist social media.
It might be a good idea for Tatum and Brown to lay off Instagram and X until the 76ers make their first regular-season appearance here in January.
But I must admit that because of the Brown trade I am more geeked about NBA regular-season games than I’ve been in any year since junior high school when Sam Jones and Bill Russell were trying to hold off Jack Twyman, Oscar Robertson, and the Cincinnati Royals. (Speaking of the old-timey C’s, props to the 2026-27 Celts for a uniform patch honoring the late Don Nelson.)
Boston’s basketball boss, Brad Stevens, is the man we have to thank for putting a charge into the NBA’s Eastern Conference this season. In sending JB to Philadelphia, Stevens made every game involving Boston, Philadelphia, or New York a referendum on the JB trade. The Brown trade is the sole reason LeBron James decided to take his skills to the city-by-the-Schuylkill. Its ripples will be felt right through the 2027 playoffs.
All of which made New York at Boston a marquee attraction.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla’s pregame media session included a pledge to gather the press next week for an off-the-record skull session focusing on analytics and the psychology of holding a 25-point lead. A lot of big leads have evaporated in the first days of NBA action and ever-intense Joe aggressively studies the science of every NBA dynamic.
The Sixers are a perfect example of a team capable of digging out of a hole. LeBron, JB, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and VJ Edgecombe fell way behind in their frst two games. They trailed by double digits in New York, then fell behind Cleveland by 29 points. They rallied in the second half to win both games. In opposite fashion, the Celtics led the Pistons by 22 in Detroit, but managed to lose by 8.
“The East is extremely deep,’’ said Mazzulla. “The East beats itself up during the course of a season.’’
The Knicks led by 1 point after one. The Celtics ran out to an 8-point lead in the second. Paul George, the player Boston received in exchange for Brown, scored 5 in the first half on the heels of his 38-point performance in Detroit. Boston led, 50-49, at halftime.
Tatum, who made zero of 7 three-point attempts in Detroit, made only 1 of 5 treys in the first half against the Knicks.
Maybe he misses Jaylen Brown.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com](mailto:daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com). Follow him [@dan\_shaughnessy](https://www.twitter.com/dan_shaughnessy).