The partnership between Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, who were selected No. 3 overall in successive drafts by the Boston Celtics in 2016 and 2017, reached extraordinary heights, bearing five conference finals, two NBA Finals and a championship in 2024.
And now it’s over. Just like that. The Celtics traded Brown — the MVP of the 2024 NBA Finals and Eastern Conference finals — to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George, two first-round draft picks and a pair of second-round picks, according to multiple reports.
I guess no partnerships end well in the NBA, but this one, it had a chance to be special.
Tatum could not win on his own, or so the theory goes, and neither could Brown, but together they could compete, and they did a damn good job of it over almost a decade.
There was real debate about who was better — Tatum or Brown — throughout their nine-year tenure together, though they never seriously entertained a discussion around it. It was forced upon them for no other reason than the fact that we love debate. We need to know who’s better. We need to sort them into a ranking, so our brains can feel better.
But “comparison is the thief of joy,” Celtics executive Brad Stevens once told me.
And now it’s cost him his team’s second-best player. You see, Tatum is better than Brown. Or at least he was, before he ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the midst of defending their championship together. Tatum has made the All-NBA First Team four times, after all.
But Brown, again, was Finals MVP and Eastern Conference finals MVP of that title run, picking up then-Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Dončić on defense in addition to his contributions on offense. There is a grit and attitude to him that drew him to a lot of fans in Boston, where effort is always respected, and Brown — if nothing else — gave a s***.
For all the talk about how advanced analytics are unkind to Brown, he was a winner in Boston, making a surprise run to the Eastern Conference finals in his rookie season. He would make five more trips to the conference finals in his 10 seasons there. He gave the Celtics everything and owes them nothing. They paid him handsomely for his services.
And one day he’ll have his No. 7 retired in TD Garden’s rafters, alongside Tatum’s No. 0.
But now he’s gone. How did we get here? Well, the Celtics reportedly offered Brown and two first-round picks to the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo last month, four years after they reportedly offered him to the Brooklyn Nets in packages for Kevin Durant.
You would be pissed if they did the same to you, too. Brown never sought a trade, though, according to The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach, which makes a deal more curious.
Why trade an in-his-prime superstar — Brown finished sixth in MVP voting this past season, leading the Celtics to 56 wins in Tatum’s absence — for a 36-year-old, oft-injured George, even if he is a future Hall of Famer, even if they get a couple of first-round picks out of the deal, even if George outplayed Brown in a seven-game first-round playoff series?
The Celtics blew a 3-1 lead to the Sixers in the opening round, and then traded Brown to them, gifting a bitter divisional rival a contender. This is a thing that actually happened.
It makes no sense, and everything Stevens does usually makes sense. He is the 2024 and 2026 Executive of the Year. So, this is a really baffling one. Maybe the Celtics thought they could not win paying Tatum and Brown max salaries, but they had won already, and why would they commit to paying George $54.1 million this season and $56.6 million next?
Maybe they thought they could replace much of what Brown provides with George — another two-way wing — while turning the picks they acquired for Brown into another player. That would make some sense, if there was some other trick up Stevens’ sleeve. But for what? Just to get as good as they were with Brown and Tatum in the first place?
Or maybe this is a mandate from new owner Bill Chisholm. He inherited a championship roster and has torn it down to one stud, Tatum. Chisholm shedded salaries in the face of the second apron, the first apron and the luxury tax. He dealt Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis. He did not re-sign Al Horford or Luke Kornet, either. Now, he has traded Brown.
Whatever the reason, the Celtics are worse today than they were yesterday, even after adding Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley to a roster that includes Derrick White, Payton Pritchard and a cast of contributors to this past year’s 56-win team in addition to Tatum.
It’s a good team, no longer a great one, unless Tatum can reach those extraordinary heights on his own. He better get there before Brown does with Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Co. in Philadelphia, or else the comparisons will have only just begun.
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