Jaylen Brown’s exit from Boston left his former teammates with little more than questions and an uncomfortable reality. One Celtics player admitted there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Brown spent nine seasons in Boston, helping the franchise reach two NBA Finals and win the 2024 championship before the Celtics sent him to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and draft compensation. For the players who shared the floor and locker room with Brown, the move was difficult to process. Yet there was also an understanding that NBA careers can change in an instant.

“It’s a part of the business,” said Neemias Queta on the Jaylen Brown trade. “It’s tough. It’s tough to see one of your teammates and friends go, nothing that we can control. At the end of the day it’s aprt of the business. We just gotta stay locked in and do what we can control. Being able to rock with the new teamates like I said.”

Queta summed up that helpless feeling and made it clear that the trade was beyond the players’ control. Jaylen Brown’s exit also forced Boston’s returning players to move forward without one of the most familiar faces in the organization. For Queta, that meant accepting the decision. Even Pritchard echoed that sentiment.

“I mean, it’s part of the business,” Pritchard said in a sit-down interview with the Celtics on CLNS. “Nothing’s actually really that shocking to me anymore. You’re just used to seeing big things, and I think changes happen all the time. It always sucks to see a brother and a teammate that you played with for a long time go, but you move on, and you get ready to go to war against him.

“I learned so much from him. So, very grateful for our relationship. He’s obviously a tremendous basketball player. But yeah, just took me under his wing at times, and I’m very grateful for it.”

Apart from his All-Star status, Jaylen Brown was someone whom the younger Celtics players could lean on, learn from and share years of experiences with.

Now, those same players will have to prepare to compete against him in Philadelphia. That’s why even JB was unhappy about the trade.

“Obviously, it was disappointing, to some degree, in terms of how things transpired at the end in Boston,” Brown told actor Mahershala Ali for The Hollywood Reporter’s “Game Recognize Game” series. “But I’m also very excited for the opportunity. You know, I’m more focused on that excitement. The past is the past.”

While Queta and Pritchard said they couldn’t help but stop the trade, fans previously questioned Jayson Tatum for not preventing the move.

That discussion became louder after ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s personal relationship had become extremely distant during their final year together.

“On the court, they were great. But over the last year or so, that personal relationship, it was as close to not existent as you could have,” Charania said.

Brown and Tatum had spent nearly a decade together and formed one of the NBA’s most successful young duos. Their partnership produced repeated deep playoff runs before finally reaching the top in 2024. Another former player pushed back strongly against the idea that the two stars disliked each other.

“I think that a lot of the current national media, to be able to have those conversations, is to create the story rather than just allow those players to have success and really to enjoy.”

Grant Williams, who played alongside both stars for four seasons in Boston, addressed the debate on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

“They had respect for one another; they enjoyed being around one another, and on the court as well. So that’s something I can vividly say is that I don’t think those guys (Tatum and Brown) dislike each other at all.”

Jaylen Brown’s departure was painful for the people who played beside him. Queta and Pritchard stated that now that JB is gone, the Celtics have new teammates, and their focus is on the new season.