Philadelphia 76ers star Jaylen Brown's reaction to his former Boston Celtics teammate Jayson Tatum's YouTube video sparked renewed speculation about a fractured relationship between the two NBA stars.
On Friday night, the Celtics' Tatum addressed his former teammate's claim that he wasn't giving an honest reaction to the trade that sent Brown from the Celtics to the 76ers this offseason. Tatum said he understood that they're in the "entertainment business," but he's not really much of an "off-the-court entertainer type of guy."
"For me, I don't have any animosity or beef or ill will towards him, and I think the frustrating part is that, since you know he's not with the Celtics anymore, the narrative or the conversations haven't been enough about what we accomplished," Tatum said at his postgame media session.
He mentioned winning the championship and growing together as teammates while they played together nearly a decade in Boston.
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Earlier this week, a new video on Tatum's YouTube channel featured him discussing his reaction to the Celtics trading Brown to the 76ers. In the video, he said he was "just as much caught off guard" as everyone else over the trade and was surprised that Brown was traded "down the street" to Philly.
Brown responded with a cap emoji on a social media post that highlighted that part of Tatum's reaction. That emoji is commonly used online to suggest someone's not telling the truth.
"It's turned into this drama type of thing ... I got two kids. I reached out to him the day he got traded. I called him. I texted him. I understand people process things differently," Tatum said. "For me, at this point in our lives, we too old to be having our relationship discussed like x, y, and z, on the internet."
"I think a conversation would solve or put out a lot of fires," the Celtics star said.
Tatum also said he's always "wished the best" for Brown and publicly expressed that. He also said the narrative trying to hype up their first game against one another is going overboard, suggesting to "get your popcorn ready."
"This ain't a [expletive] boxing match. I play basketball," he said.
On Friday night, Tatum powered the Celtics to their first win of the season against the defending champion New York Knicks. Tatum finished with a team-high 36 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists in the 107-103 win.
That improved Boston to 1-1. Meanwhile, Brown has helped the 76ers off to a 2-0 start out of the gates, including an incredible 29-point comeback win against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night.
The Celtics and 76ers first meet on Tuesday, Nov. 10, in Philadelphia at 8 p.m. ET, with more matchups to come next year. Fans can still get their popcorn ready, since these two teams seem like Eastern Conference heavyweights and could have some intriguing basketball matchups.
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