The Boston Celtics have finally had enough of the ten-year veteran who in the end proved to be a legend in his own mind.
Jaylen Brown, fined twice by the NBA earlier this year for criticizing the refs, has been traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, according to several sports-news outlets.
In return for the five-time all-star, the green will get Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday.
Brown is coming off his best season in the NBA, averaging 28.7 points per game, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists over 71 games, delivering as Boston’s top option while Jayson Tatum recovered from his Achilles tear for most of the season, the New York Post’s Collin Ward said.
Brown joins his second NBA team after ten years with the Celtics.
He was key to helping the Celtics fill the void left by the injured Tatum, but he’s been complaining since the ill-fated playoffs that the Celtics don’t appreciate his star power.
Brown was so vociferous criticizing game officiating and being unappreciated that noted podcaster Stephen A. Smith two months ago told him to shut up already.
In return Brown told Smith he needed to retire.
Brown has paid $85,000 in fines to the NBA this year for his outspoken, sometimes profane, criticism of game referees.
He has three seasons left on his five-year, $285 million contract.
Brown has good numbers but he’s no Jayson Tatum – and secretly he knows it.
In exchange for jettisoning the whiner-in-chief, the Celtics get a nine-time all-star in George, who has played in just 78 games the past two seasons combined, averaging 16.7 points and 5.3 rebounds.
George has a $54 million cap hit this season and a $56 million hit in 2027-28 if he picks up his player option, according to Ward.
Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire said the Brown trade “shocked just about everybody in the sports world.”
“There’s a very real chance this goes down as one of the worst trades in modern NBA history,” Sports Illustrated reported. “The Celtics got no worthwhile assets, no talented young players, and didn’t even clear cap space with two years remaining on George’s max contract.
“Even if things were worse behind the scenes than we realized with Brown you just cannot accept that poor of a package for a premium player,” SI’s reporter triumvirate Liam McKeone, Dan Lyons, Ryan Phillips wrote Wednesday.
They say the Celtics in hindsight made a big mistake having recently tried to put Brown on the table to try and land Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks.
“They didn’t do what it took to get that deal across the finish line,” the SI team said. “But by putting Brown on the table, the toothpaste was out of the tube. The relationship between Brown and the franchise was too far gone to salvage after the news he was offered for Giannis went public. As a result, Boston had to settle for what is undeniably a terrible package.”
