The Boston Celtics have yet to take on the Philadelphia 76ers this season, but all the conversations since the shocking trade back in June have been about the relationship between Celtics star Jayson Tatum and former star Jaylen Brown.

The Boston Celtics shockingly traded away Brown in June, getting back Paul George and a couple of first round picks in the process. Since the trade went through, however, there's been significant speculation about what role Tatum played in the trade and what the relationship between the two NBA Championship teammates really is.

“For me, I understand being in an entertainment business. Me personally, I'm not much of an off-the-court entertainer type of guy. And for me, it's like, I don't have any animosity or beef or ill will towards him. Right? And I think the frustrating part is, since he's not on our with the Celtics anymore, the narrative or the conversations haven't been enough about what we accomplished. All the games we won, winning the championship, how we've grown together. Right?”

Tatum and Brown won a championship together in Boston in 2024, with the Celtics defeating the Dallas Mavericks in five games. Brown ultimately won the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, and there were some discussions about whether or not Tatum deserved that award and if that rubbed anyone the wrong way.

Fresh off a career-year in which he led the Celtics while Tatum was recovering from an Achilles injury, Boston elected to move on from Brown.

Many believed that the Celtics would not have traded away Jaylen Brown without some kind of conversation and approval from Jayson Tatum. On Friday, Tatum shut down that down.

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“It's turned into this drama type of thing… I reached out to him the day he got traded, I called him, I texted him. And I understand people process things differently. So for me, at this point in our lives, we too old to be having our relationship discussed XYZ on the internet. There's a conversation that we had. We can definitely have that conversation. I welcome that, right? I've always wanted the best for him and wish the best for him. I've always publicly said those things. So, you know, I've seen all these things about, ‘get your popcorn ready when they play basketball.' Again, there's no animosity, there's no beef, and I just hate the way that the conversation, the narrative around it, when there's not enough communication. And I think the conversation was solved or put out a lot of fires. And again, people process and handle things at their own time. Whenever that happens, it will happen.”

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are each other's most played with teammates, having played 620 contests together, including 121 postseason games.

The Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers are scheduled to play four games against one another this year, with the first taking place on November 10, 2026. Brown makes his return to TD Garden in Boston on January 21, 2027.