Boston landed Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown via smart draft decisions. They spent nearly a decade selling them as the era-defining partnership that would deliver a championship, and delivered exactly that in 2024. That partnership officially ended, and the player who left it just spoke publicly about it for the first time.

At his introductory press conference with the Philadelphia 76ers, Brown spoke about his relationship with Tatum.

“We won a championship together,” Brown said at his introductory presser. “So, anybody that you won a championship with, you’d think that’s what a brotherhood or a lifelong legacy would entail. Obviously, there’s ups and downs in any type of relationship, for sure.”

“But, on my end, it’s nothing but respect,” he continued. “Besides when he plays the Sixers, I hope he does well. But other than that, everything for me is just based on respect.” When asked whether the two had spoken since the trade, Brown responded: “Not really.”

Shams Charania said that while Brown and Jayson Tatum continued to function well on the floor, their relationship away from basketball had deteriorated significantly in the final year they played together.

Philadelphia ultimately acquired Brown for Paul George and four draft picks. A package that raised eyebrows around the league given Brown was coming off a season in which he averaged 28.7 points a game and carried Boston to the East’s No. 2 seed while Tatum recovered from a torn Achilles.

“They tried to pin us against each other,” Tatum said on TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle. “I have nothing, obviously, but love and respect for Jaylen. It’s tough when you are a professional athlete, and everything we do is publicized and nitpicked.”

On the circumstances surrounding his exit, he said: “To be honest, I’m moving on. Maybe one day we share the details of how everything transpired, all the moving parts that took place in this. Obviously, it’s a lot of speculation. I felt no need to chime in on it because I’m focused on what’s in front of me.”

Jaylen Brown also talked about his decade in Boston, saying: “I look back at the city of Boston and I’m grateful. I’ve been able to develop as a man, as a human being there. … So I won a championship and I have nothing but respect for the city of Boston. But now it’s time to move forward.”

There was no hostility in his words, no shots fired. Just respect offered at arm’s length, and a clear signal that whatever chapter defined the Tatum-Brown era in Boston has closed for good.