​The Boston Celtics pulled off one of the most consequential trades in franchise history last week by sending Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for a package anchored by 36-year-old star Paul George and two first-round picks. Although Boston had been deeply involved in talks about Giannis Antetokounmpo, once those negotiations fizzled, the sense of urgency to move Brown didn’t dissipate. The Celtics felt they weren’t getting enough value for the max-contract investment and needed to pursue a deal that could alter their trajectory. They fielded inquiries from teams across the league, grew increasingly dissatisfied with the potential returns for Brown, and ultimately circled back to the Sixers, a club they had stayed in touch with throughout the spring.
New Sixers executive Mike Gansey, brought in from the Cavaliers to replace Daryl Morey, kept a finger on the Brown pulse. Yet he remained uncertain a deal would materialize—and the fact that it did seemed to come “out of nowhere.” Gansey acknowledged this sentiment on Philadelphia radio this week (via MassLive): the Celtics’ decision to move Brown to their fiercest division rival after a season in which he was MVP-caliber felt like a long shot until it actually occurred. Gansey said, “We were talking to Boston. Jaylen was obviously out there in the media and, as every team does, we make a call and see if he was available. We kept talking to Boston for a couple weeks. Didn’t know if anything would really happen but kept talking to them and talking to them. Next thing you know, they wanted to do a deal. That’s kind of how it happened.” He added, “It kind of came out of nowhere a little bit but kind of kept the conversation going. We got lucky and are excited to have Jaylen.”
For the Celtics, the outcome underscores a hard dose of misfortune for their fan base, and a stroke of luck for Philadelphia. The long-standing rivalry between New York and Boston is intense in multiple sports, but in the NBA, the real rival within the Eastern Conference has long been the Sixers. In this deal, Boston surrendered its second-best player to a division rival, effectively swapping a high-level contributor for an arrangement they believed would best position them for the road ahead.
Celtics president Brad Stevens faced a difficult choice and ultimately conceded that the Sixers offered the superior package. He had to set aside the weight of the rivalry and the personal admiration he has for Brown in order to maximize the team’s optionality and future potential. “The Philly part, I’m with you,” Stevens acknowledged. “That is a hard thing to trade a guy that you first of all care so much about, and secondly, you have so much respect and admiration for, to a team that just beat you in the playoffs. …But I do think that ultimately when you do a deal, you have to be thinking about you first and the optionality it creates for you. If I was being honest, if that exact deal came from a team out West and you were comparing the two, then you’d probably take the team out West. But that’s not the way it would work.”