PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Reeling from an early exit in the NBA playoffs, Jaylen Brown was still a Boston Celtics star when he dissed Joel Embiid and called him a flopper on a livestream.
“Joel Embiid is a great player, one of the best bigs in (expletive) basketball history,” Brown said. “Flops. He know it. This ain’t breaking news.”
Did someone say breaking news?
Brown might have to make awkward amends with Embiid now that they are teammates on the 76ers
in the wake of an out-of-nowhere trade that rocked the NBA and again positions Philadelphia as an instant contender for the franchise's first NBA title since 1983.
You know, because trying to win it all with a hired gun worked so well for the Sixers with Paul George. And James Harden. Or Jimmy Butler.
All flops of the postseason kind in Philly.
The Sixers have another superstar to pair with Embiid — and the true franchise cornerstones in All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey and second-year standout VJ Edgecombe — after new team president of basketball operations Mike Gansey pulled off a whale of a move in his first month on the job.
Brown — the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league’s fourth-leading scorer this past season — is getting traded by the Boston Celtics to the Philadelphia 76ers, a person with knowledge of the deal’s terms said Wednesday.
Boston is getting George, along with a slew of draft capital that could become two first-round picks and two second-round picks, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade does not yet have the required league approvals.
“The nba is doing that THING AGAIN,'” Maxey wrote on social media Wednesday night.
Without a game played, the Sixers are the early winners in this deal.
Gansey somehow shed the two years and $110 million left on the oft injured and aging George's deal for a bona fide superstar who was sixth in the NBA MVP voting this past season. The 36-year-old George — who was suspended 25 games for flunking a drug test — played in only 78 total games for the Sixers and has played more than 56 games in a season only one time since 2019.
His contract seemed immovable.
Suddenly — as they say in Boston —- anything is possible in Philadelphia.
The Celtics had to move on from Brown after they dangled him as trade bait to Milwaukee in a failed bid to land Giannis Antetokounmpo from Milwaukee.
Following the first round of the NBA draft, Boston president of basketball operations Brad Stevens declined to say how close the team got to executing a trade for Brown. But he said he still views Brown to be part the Celtics’ future. It’s why the team sat down with Brown recently, who is currently overseas.
“Jaylen Brown is a big part of us. I don’t want to predict the future. I look at it as this is our team,” Stevens said.
He's now a big part of Philadelphia's plan and a franchise that seemed stuck in the mud after it was swept by the eventual NBA champion Knicks in the second round — after rallying from 3-1 down to topple Boston in the first round — and was now third among sportsbooks late Wednesday night to win the Eastern Conference.
Gansey said at his first press conference last month that he wasn't concerned the Sixers were traveling on two timelines — a win-now mode while Embiid and George were nearing the end of their deals versus dealing with the long-term of trying to find pieces that can still contribute in the future while Maxey is the undisputed leader of the team and Edgecombe is entering his prime.
“I just don't look at it as two timelines,” Gansey said. “They're our four guys. They're under contract. We've got to do the best to get them to their best selves. I think every night, at 7 o'clock, we've got to get them to their best to help us.”
They're going to get Brown at his best — and with a proverbial chip in his shoulder — trying to prove Boston wrong and that he can lead his former rivals to the NBA promised land. With Jayson Tatum playing in just 16 games during the regular season while he rehabbed from a ruptured Achilles tendon, the 29-year-old Brown averaged career highs in points (28.7), rebounds (6.9) and assists (5.1).
Brown still has three seasons and about $182 million left on what was then a record, five-year, $304 million supermax deal he signed in 2023.
Before Antetokounmpo was ultimately dealt to the Heat, Brown posted a video on Twitch in which he described his mood.
“To all the people that’s doubted me, that want me to do this, or want me, you’re turning me into a monster,” Brown said.
He'll have his opportunity in Philly to unleash the beast with Embiid routinely sidelined big chunks of the season with injuries. Maxey had lamented how difficult it was to try and carry the Sixers without a 1B when Embiid was sidelined and now the Sixers have a sort of guardrail in Brown to steady the team during those absences.
The Sixers are transformed — just as they thought they would be when they traded for Harden, Butler and signed George, only to fail and fail again in the playoffs.
Now it's up to Brown and Embiid and Maxey to form an All-Star trio that can do the improbable just as the Knicks finally did this season in winning their first title in 53 years.
Speaking of improbable, anyone in Philly have a number for LeBron James?
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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.
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