The NBA is a business.
We often hear that phrase when a player is traded or when contract negotiations go sour. It’s true. It’s a league run by billionaires, many of them running their franchises like assets.
You can tell players not to take it personally, but how could they not? Sure, they make millions of dollars and have the ability to live a life most of us could only dream of, but they’re human beings. And not just human beings, but human beings with extraordinary athletic talents, along with plenty
of pride and ego.
So, as Brad Stevens sat at his press conference following the trade of Jaylen Brown to the rival Sixers, selling the fan base on how getting rid of Brown was best for the Boston Celtics, how the hell is Brown supposed to feel?
During his introductory press conference a couple weeks ago, Brown said all the right things. As a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (with actor Anthony Anderson filling in as host), the two-time All-NBA pick continued this level of diplomacy.
But make no mistake — Jaylen Brown will be the most motivated player in the NBA next season.
The full NBA schedule for the 2026-27 season came out last week. Unsurprisingly, LeBron James and the new-look Sixers will feature heavily on national TV.
It felt like a no-brainer for the league to have the Sixers take on the defending champion New York Knicks at MSG on opening night. And sure, it makes sense for LeBron to return to L.A. to face the Lakers on Christmas Day.
But it was still mildly surprising for Brown’s return to Boston not to be featured in a marquee matchup. That game won’t happen until January — and you’ll need a subscription to Amazon Prime to watch it. It doesn’t exactly scream “game we definitely want people to watch” by the schedule-makers.
Brown spent a decade with the Celtics. He was a five-time All-Star and won Finals MVP when Boston defeated the Dallas Mavericks in 2024. Add to that the offseason smear campaign Brown was the victim of before and after ultimately being traded to the rival Sixers — for what most deemed a poor return — and you have a storyline juicier than the ribeye served on an Angelo’s cheesesteak.
When Brown got the news he was being dealt to the Sixers after a decade with the Boston Celtics, he threw his phone.
Hey, who among us when we’ve gotten difficult news?
Fast forward to a month later and Brown was sitting at Franklin J. Myers Rec Center in West Philly, surrounded by most of the Sixers’ brass, a swath of media and dozens of adoring young fans wearing No. 7 shirseys.
But Brown didn’t give himself much time to sulk following the trade. Nor did he sound bitter. In fact, whenever you consider he was traded to the Celtics’ direct rival — and the team he battled for 10 years and that overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat Brown and his Boston team last season — needing time to adjust is understandable.
For all the discourse about who Brown is as both a player and a person this offseason, it feels like his humanity has been lost in the shuffle.
When there’s an insinuation a player is selfish, to the point where he can no longer play for your franchise, there’s a strong chance that player is going to be motivated to prove that narrative wrong. It’s not like we’re talking about a player who’s chucked up 30 shots a night throughout his career or who doesn’t given effort on the other end of the floor.
We’re talking about a player who sacrificed to help his team win an NBA Finals two years ago. Maybe he wanted the ball more last season, but the Celtics also gave him the ball. They had to with Jayson Tatum missing most of the season. Relationships between star players can fizzle out over time, but acting like Brown is solely responsible — or even mostly responsible — for Boston blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Sixers is wild.
Analytics are a tool. Simply watching the game doesn’t give you the whole picture, either. Even covering the team on a daily basis only gives you so much insight. It’s all a part of the equation. There’s nuance to all this that gets lost in arguments and short-form videos on social media.
Brown will need to make sacrifices. As will everyone else in the Sixers’ ridiculously talented starting group. But we don’t have to go back very far to point to an example where Brown has done it before. Now, he’s going to be more motivated than ever to show he can do it again. He’s won at the highest level. To think he can’t do so while surrounded by four supremely gifted players is shortsighted.
The best way to shut up the nerds and the naysayers, the attention-seekers and hot-takers, is to win. Another Finals MVP wouldn’t hurt, either.
But it won’t be personal.
Strictly business.
