Did the Philadelphia 76ers annoy the Boston Celtics into trading star forward Jaylen Brown to them? Recent reporting coming from the Athletic's Tony Jones hints that it could be the case that the persistence of a member of the 76ers front office paid off in dealing with Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens by calling about dealing for the Georgia native.
That exec, Philadelphia team president Mike Gansey shared that he had been pursuing Brown since he was part of the Cleveland Cavaliers' front office that had team majority owner Dan Gilbert pushing his front office to stay focused on attempting to secure their trade targets over the course of several seasons. "There were some trades that we've done that were two years in the making,
simply because we kept calling," said the Sixers exec.
"We kept checking in, and in the end we came away with that person," he added. "It didn't always work, but we always wanted to make sure we did the work."
"The process in talking to Boston about Jaylen took a couple of weeks," said Gansey. "We let them know we were interested and then just went from there."
"We just stayed in the mix, and the next thing you know, we were at the five-yard line. We just kept banging the drum and expressing interest."
Alas for Bostonian Brown fans, that approach struck gold for the 76ers – and landed the Celtics Paul George and optionality.
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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Did the 76ers annoy the Boston Celtics into trading star forward Jaylen Brown to them?
