Jaylen Brown’s comments after the Celtics’ first-round exit to the 76ers created a domino effect on the media, raising questions over the former Finals MVP’s commitment to the franchise. Following Tracy McGrady’s comments, there were rumors that Jaylen Brown is frustrated with the Celtics organization.
After Brad Stevens seemingly shut down those rumors in his exit interview for the season, Jaylen Brown went live on his stream and showed gratitude for the gesture of faith from the Celtics’ general manager.
“I’ve been fined $50K, but first things first. A lot of stuff is swirling around the Celtics and the organization. I hate that our president of basketball operations even had to respond to this. Brad and I have a great relationship. I love Boston. If it were up to me, I could play here for the next 10 years,” said Brown as he cleared the air on all the rumors.
During the exit interviews for the season, Brad Stevens emphasized that there is no substance to any rumors on Brown’s future with the team, at least not that he knows of.
“I talked to Jaylen, Monday… It was nothing but positive. He has not expressed those frustrations to me. We’ve been here 10 years together. I do think that I love JB, and everyone around here loves JB,” said Stevens.
“I think just like for any other one of our guys, when we get to the end of the season, I’ll be here, and my door is always open if anyone ever wants to come in and talk about it. You know, talk about their team, their place, whatever the case may be, I’m all ears,” he further added with a sense of pride in being close to each player on the team.
“And that goes from 1 to 16, not just Jaylen, not just Jayson, and not just any other guy that has been here [long]. It’s really important to be available, and I certainly am, and none of that has been expressed to me.”
If there were any doubts on Brown’s future after Brad Stevens’ comments, they were surely cleared out by Jaylen Brown’s follow-up response. The former Finals MVP was drafted by the Celtics and has been with the team ever since they picked him third overall in 2016.
In that decade with the team, Brown has averaged 20.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.9 assists while shooting 47.8% from the field and 35.8% from beyond the arc. He has been selected to four All-Star teams since and has one Finals MVP award in their 2024 NBA championship run.
Clearly, everything that Brown is in the basketball world today, he owes a debt of gratitude to the Celtics for showing faith in him with a $300 million+ contract in 2023.
And he has responded by reciprocating the belief in the franchise now by pledging his loyalty to them for the next decade, if possible. It will now be interesting to see if the 29-year-old star sticks to his word and retires as a Celtics player or eventually gets traded, considering how cold this business is.
