Jaylen Brown was in shock on Saturday when none of the five Boston Celtics teammates he called during his Twitch livestream answered his call. Brown’s shock would turn to relief later, as he realized he had changed his number and none of his new teammates had it.
Jayson Tatum was unsurprisingly one of the players Brown had called, and he was asked about the incident on NBA Today.
“So, I saw that the next day,” Tatum said. “… Ironically, I had my phone in my hand and I seen this unfamiliar number come across my phone. I’m like, ‘Yo, who is calling me?’ In typical JB fashion, called his teammates but not tell us that he had a new phone number and expect us to answer.”
That was indeed an epic fail on Brown’s part. To go with Tatum, he had called Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Neemias Queta, and Jordan Walsh. Pritchard eventually texted enquiring who the caller was, which is when it struck Brown that he hadn’t given any of them his new number.
You’d imagine those five would have picked up if they knew Brown was the caller. Tatum almost certainly would have, based on what we saw in Jeff Teague’s Club 520 Podcast.
Teague had briefly played alongside Tatum and Brown on the Celtics during the 2020-21 season. After the Brown incident, he decided to call Tatum to see if he’d pick up, and he did.
(starts at 3:24 mark):
Tatum picking up the call when his former teammates of many years ago called makes you think he would have picked up if he knew the caller on Saturday was Brown. They have been teammates on the Celtics for eight seasons now and have had so much success together.
Tatum and Brown led the Celtics to the NBA championship in 2024, and a repeat appeared to be on the cards entering the 2025 playoffs. They dispatched the Orlando Magic in five games in the first round, but then lost in six games to the New York Knicks in the Conference Semifinals.
The Celtics suffered a massive injury blow against the Knicks, too, with Tatum tearing his Achilles in Game 4. The six-time All-Star, who averaged 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game in 2024-25, now looks set to miss the entire 2025-26 campaign.
The injury to Tatum means Brown will have to carry a much bigger load for the Celtics. With the likes of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis having been traded, too, though, there are serious doubts about how far he can take this team.
Celtics analyst Bob Ryan doubts Brown can even lead them to a top-six finish in the weak Eastern Conference. He and they are being completely written off.
That, in turn, means Brown, who averaged 22.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game in 2024-25, has a little bit of extra motivation heading into the season. The Celtics will hope he can prove the naysayers wrong with a strong campaign.
