“I’m still processing how this all went down. I’m excited and disappointed at the same time,” Jaylen Brown said in a social media statement after his July 1 trade to the 76ers. It read like a player who was blindsided. Almost four months later, a former Celtic is offering a very different account of how the split began, just as the feud with Jayson Tatum reaches a new peak.
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Brian Scalabrine, a member of Boston’s 2008 championship team and the primary analyst on NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics broadcasts, claimed on SiriusXM NBA Radio’s “The Starting Lineup” on Monday that Brown pushed for the move himself. His account has not been confirmed, and it contradicts what has been reported since the trade.
“My understanding of this thing is that he demanded to be traded, not to the media, but to the organization,” Scalabrine told co-host Frank Isola.
When Isola asked why Brown would then be angry with Tatum, Scalabrine said he didn’t understand it either.
“I think Jaylen Brown lives in his own reality,” he said. “Like, because it wasn’t being documented that he demanded to be traded, then I don’t think that anybody, anybody thinks that, that he could — now, he could say that it was Tatum’s fault. Like, he could just make stuff up.”
“But my understanding is Jaylen Brown went to the organization and had a list of demands. And it was like, ‘You either do this or you trade me.’ And he was rooting to get traded to Milwaukee, including calling some other teammates about, ‘Hey, man, what do you think of Milwaukee? We should go there.'”
However, when Isola asked his co-host on whether he was reporting it as a fact, Scalabrine stepped back.
Scalabrine’s claim also runs against what has been reported so far. On the day of the trade, ESPN’s Shams Charania said Brown “never requested a trade. He never asked out of Boston.” The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn wrote this week that Brown did not ask to be moved and still seems unsure why the Celtics made the deal.
The Celtics had tried to send Brown to Milwaukee in a deal for Giannis Antetokounmpo before Antetokounmpo landed in Miami. Boston then traded Brown to Philadelphia for Paul George, first-round picks in 2028 and 2031, and second-round picks in 2028 and 2030.
Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum reportedly haven’t spoken since Brown was sent to Philadelphia.
The feud turned public this week. Brown posted a blue-cap emoji on Instagram, slang for lying, in response to Tatum saying he was “just as much caught off guard as the rest of the world” by the trade.
After a 107-103 win over the Knicks in Boston’s home opener, Tatum answered back. “I reached out to him the day he got traded. I called him, I texted him,” Tatum said. “And I understand people process things differently.”
Brown’s reply on Saturday was a mix of denial and a jab. “It’s no beef. And I think he’s right, there’s no beef,” Brown said. “Jayson comes from a wonderful family, we’ve accomplished some great things, he’s a hell of a basketball player and he’s got a great PR team. It’s no beef, but it might be little lamb chops and some gravy, you know what I mean? He should stay ready at all times.”
For now, the evidence shows each side giving a different story and a lot of mutual distance. Tatum said he is open to a conversation, but Brown does not appear interested, and Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla called Tatum the team’s “highest character guy.”
The two face each other for the first time on Nov. 10 in Philadelphia.