Jaylen Brown trade rumors started swirling once the offseason arrived, gaining more traction as the NBA Champion and multi-time All-Star made eye-raising comments about this being his favorite season.
It drew extra attention because this season did not involve Brown’s teammate Jayson Tatum for most of it, until Tatum was cleared to return for 16 games and part of the postseason.
Meanwhile, Brown guided the team to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and seemed to suggest he preferred this past season due to the adversity and working with a resilient roster that came to “go to war” with him in the games.
Some took this as a jab by Brown, believing he wasn’t happy with the Celtics’ situation and preferred being the top star on the roster, and others, including ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, suggested Brown might be trying to get traded.
After calling attention to Brown’s comments on ESPN and making additional remarks about Tatum being more liked by corporations than Brown, Smith and Brown briefly got into it, exchanging a few messages on X.
And through all of it, Tatum hasn’t reacted ot commented on the situation, although some believe the recent cryptic clip he shared on his Instagram Story is referencing all the drama.
On Thursday, Tatum posted a puzzling video clip featuring a reporter bringing up “fake news” and actor Denzel Washington discussing how people get their news.
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read it, you’re misinformed,” Washington says in part of the clip.
A woman off-camera in the video asks the actor what people should do considering those two things he said.
“What are the long-term effects of too much information? One of the effects is the need to be first, not even to be true anymore,” he suggests. “So what a responsibility you all have. Not to be first, but to tell the truth.”
“We live in a society now where it’s just about being first, who cares, get it out there, we don’t care who it hurts, we don’t care who we destroy, we don’t care if it’s true, just say it,” Washington also said in the video.
The video finishes with the actor making a telling statement, “Anything you practice you’ll get good at, including BS.”
While Tatum shared the clip from an Alpha Motivation channel without any text or emojis, it appears to be him reacting and responding to the offseason drama involving Brown.
It also could’ve been for something completely different that Tatum wanted to share with everyone, but the discussion of media and “BS” news is too coincidental to ignore.
Many commenters replying to an X post showing Tatum shared the cryptic video suggested that this indicates Tatum has his teammate’s back amid all the media discussions and trade speculation.
“sounds like he clearly has JB’s back in all this nonsense swirling around,” a commenter replied.
“This is support from media attacking JB to have news online,” another commenter wrote.
Major offseason speculation with Brown has centered on the Celtics potentially making a blockbuster trade with the Milwaukee Bucks to bring Giannis Antetokounmpo to Boston, pairing him with Tatum for a stronger chance to contend.
Most have speculated that this would involve sending Brown as part of the trade package, whether to the Bucks or another team that would help facilitate the trade.
And there are plenty of individuals who believe that trading Brown would be beneficial, especially with all that’s unfolded. However, there may be another option: keep Brown on the Celtics’ roster alongside a fully healthy Tatum and see if they can replicate their championship success in the next season.
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