Jaylen Brown commented on his relationship with former teammate Jayson Tatum after the Boston Celtics traded Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers during the offseason. “I saw him say, ‘It’s no problem.’ And I think he’s right, there’s no problem,” Brown told reporters Saturday (0:11). “Jayson comes from a wonderful family, we’ve accomplished great things, he’s a great basketball player and he has a great PR team. It’s not beef, but it might be lamb chops and some gravy, you know what I mean? It has to be ready at all times.” “That’s what it is,” he added. “No problem, it should never be that. It’s just basketball. We’re both blessed. But it might be a little mutton chop. We’ll be fine.” Boston sent Brown to Philadelphia while receiving Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks in a July 1 trade. Tatum said he was “as caught off guard as the rest of the world” about the exchange in a video posted to his YouTube channel on Thursday. “Shams is coming,” Tatum explained. “He hands me the towel. He’s like, ‘Hey, put this on your face. Don’t react. They just changed it.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, s–t.’ I’m like, ‘Where?’ He said, “Philadelphia.” I said, ‘Shall we change it on the street?'” However, Brown responded to the video with a hat emoji. Still, Tatum explained that there was no hostility between them. “To me, I understand that we’re in the entertainment business,” Tatum told reporters on Friday. “I personally am not an off-court entertainer type of guy. For me, I don’t have any animosity or resentment toward him. I think the frustrating part is that since he’s no longer with the Celtics, the narrative or the conversations haven’t been enough about what we’ve accomplished. All the games we’ve won, a championship, how we’ve grown together. It’s become this kind of drama.” Shaq and Kobe,” he added. In July, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the relationship between Brown and Tatum outside of basketball was “as close to non-existent as possible” in the year leading up to the trade. During the 2025-26 season, Brown took over as Boston’s primary scoring option while Tatum recovered from a torn Achilles tendon. Tatum was able to return before the end of the regular season, although the Celtics ultimately fell in the first round of the playoffs. Brown and Tatum still experienced immense success during their nine years as teammates, quickly becoming stars and leading Boston on several deep playoff runs.
