A day after the trade that ended his decade in Boston, Jaylen Brown finally spoke.
The newest member of the Philadelphia 76ers posted a lengthy farewell statement to his X account Thursday afternoon, describing himself as torn between excitement about what’s ahead and disappointment over how his Celtics tenure ended.
“I’m still processing how this all went down,” Brown wrote.
The message arrived less than 24 hours after ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Boston had agreed to send the 2024 NBA Finals MVP to its Atlantic Division rival for Paul George and four draft picks — a deal that, per ESPN, cannot become official until Monday.
What Brown said in his first comments
The statement opened with gratitude and never turned bitter, but the subtext was hard to miss. Brown emphasized that he earned everything in Boston without asking for favors, that he showed up daily and took on every challenge, and that respect matters more to him than words — a pointed framing from a player the front office spent weeks dangling in trade talks.
He devoted the heart of the message to the city itself, thanking Boston’s fans, reflecting on the relationships he built over 10 seasons and pointing to the 2024 championship as something he will carry with him. He acknowledged that walking away is painful when so much of himself went into the franchise.
The closing turned forward. Brown expressed gratitude for the opportunity in Philadelphia, wrote that every city carries its own identity and expectations, and pledged to earn the Sixers fan base’s respect through his work — before signing off with a rallying cry borrowed from Philadelphia’s own vocabulary about throwing the ball up.
Why “disappointed” is doing the heavy lifting
The disappointment is not hard to trace. Charania reported that Brown never requested a trade, and that Boston was nonetheless “full-blown shopping” him around the league by Wednesday. As recently as May, Brown had made clear publicly that he wanted to stay in Boston long term.
The sequence that got here started with Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Celtics built a Brown-centered offer for the Milwaukee superstar before the Bucks routed him to the Miami Heat instead. Rather than reset, Boston kept working the phones on Brown.
Charania has also reported that the front office internally concluded it no longer wanted to build around the supermax pairing of Brown and Jayson Tatum as its title core, while shutting down any inquiries teams made about Tatum.
Viewed through that lens, Brown’s insistence in the statement that his actions spoke for themselves reads less like a platitude and more like a closing argument. He carried a Tatum-less roster to 56 wins and a No. 2 seed last season, finished sixth in MVP voting and still learned his team was open for business on him.
The trade that prompted the goodbye
The full return:Â Boston receives George, a 2028 first-round pick that can convert to a more favorable swap, an unprotected 2031 first-rounder, a 2028 second-round pick (most favorable of Golden State, Oklahoma City and Milwaukee) and a 2030 second-rounder (most favorable of Washington, Portland and Phoenix).
The contracts explain much of the backlash. Per ESPN’s Zach Kram, Brown, 29, is signed through 2028-29 at $57.1 million next season, rising to $61.0 million and then $65.0 million, while George, 36, is owed $54.1 million in 2026-27 with a $56.6 million player option the following year — meaning Boston barely saved money while surrendering the far younger star. Kram’s grades landed at an A-minus for Philadelphia and a D-plus for Boston.
Former Celtics center Kendrick Perkins spoke for much of the fan base on ESPN.
“This is a sad day for the Boston Celtics,” Perkins said, arguing the front office had strengthened the exact rival that just eliminated it
Philadelphia’s day-after momentum
While Brown was saying goodbye, his new team kept building around him. The Sixers agreed Thursday to a two-year deal with free agent guard Anfernee Simons, per ESPN, adding a proven bench scorer who spent last season alongside Brown in Boston. That agreement follows the four-year deal Philadelphia reached earlier in the week with forward Dean Wade.
The result is a core of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Brown and Joel Embiid that immediately changes Philadelphia’s ceiling — the same group that eliminated Boston in the first round now adds a second-team All-NBA wing who averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game last season. Oddsmakers responded in kind, with ESPN reporting the Sixers’ championship number shortening to 20-1 after the deal.
The fit questions are real — Brown posted the NBA’s second-highest usage rate last season and now joins two other high-volume scorers — but the talent math is not complicated. Philadelphia swapped a declining 36-year-old for a star in his prime and kept its young backcourt intact.
What comes next in Boston
For the Celtics, the return package now has to justify itself. George arrives with two years of underwhelming Philadelphia production behind him, and the front office paired the trade with free agent agreements for Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley as it reshapes the roster around Tatum’s return from his Achilles injury.
The two first-round picks give Brad Stevens ammunition for the next move, and that next move is the only thing that can change the story. Because as of Thursday afternoon, the lasting image of this trade is not a rebuilding plan — it is Brown, gracious and wounded, thanking a city that traded him to its rival, and promising Philadelphia the one thing Boston never doubted: the work.
