Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s relationship, or lack thereof, has been a big talking point lately, but Boston Celtics icon Paul Pierce believes all of this is greatly overblown. Pierce brought up the Shaquille O’Neal–Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan–Scottie Pippen duos to make his point regarding Tatum and Brown on his No Fouls Given podcast.
“This is actually news?” Pierce asked. “… Did Shaq and Kobe hang out? Get along?… Mike and Scottie. Man, people live different lifestyles. That’s what you got to understand. Everybody just because they look like they got the best relationship and the chemistry on the court don’t mean that’s what it’s gonna equal off the court.
“Some people got families,” Pierce continued. “Some people are into different things on their free time. It’s like, all right, that’s cool, and that’s okay if they didn’t hang out or communicate. Did we hear about any like scuffles?”
Pierce was part of a Celtics locker room where two teammates did not like each other. We’re, of course, talking about Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen. It got to the point where the Celtics had Rondo and Allen box each other because of the tension between them. Despite these issues, these two still worked well together on the court.
As Pierce pointed out, O’Neal and Bryant definitely weren’t the best of friends either. They still three-peated with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2000 to 2002. It has also become clear in recent years that Jordan and Pippen didn’t get along nearly as well as the outside world thought they did. They still three-peated twice with the Chicago Bulls, from 1991 to 1993 and from 1996 to 1998.
NBA history shows that a team’s stars don’t need to have a great relationship for them to win it all. Would it be nice if they were close? Sure, but it’s not a prerequisite to get to the top of the mountain.
As for Tatum and Brown’s relationship, here is the part of ESPN’s Shams Charania’s report that Pierce was reacting to.
“And for the longest time, over 10 years, nine years together, they both worked amazingly on the court together,” Charania said. “Like on the court, they were great. But, like, over the last year or so, that personal relationship was as close to, like, you know, nonexistent as you could have. But on the court, they were amazing, hardworking professionals together.”
At the end of the day, that last part is what matters. As long as there is no impact on how they play together on the court, it’s irrelevant if these two aren’t the best of friends.
Tatum has also pushed back on some of this reporting about his relationship with Brown. He appeared to claim the media tried to pit them against each other, and that they had nine amazing years together.
They were indeed nine great years. The Celtics made it to the Eastern Conference Finals five times with these two and progressed to the NBA Finals twice. They suffered heartbreak in 2022 against the Golden State Warriors, but then took down the Dallas Mavericks in 2024.
You couldn’t have imagined after that triumph that this duo would be broken up in just two years. The Celtics traded Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks, and two second-round picks. It looks like a terrible trade, but time will tell.
