Sports

/

ArcaMax

Former Celtic disputes new Jaylen Brown-Jayson Tatum report

Zack Cox, Boston Herald on

Published in Basketball

ESPN’s Shams Charania on Tuesday reported that Jaylen Brown “confronted” Jayson Tatum during the period between the Celtics’ attempt to trade Brown to the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo and his ultimate trade to the Philadelphia 76ers.

One Celtics alum said no such confrontation occurred.

Evan Turner, who played two seasons for Boston and was an assistant on Brad Stevens’ coaching staff in 2020-21, disputed Charania’s report in a post on X, writing: “This didn’t happen.”

“They never spoke?” CLNS reporter Bobby Manning asked in a follow-up post.

“Nooooooooo,” Turner replied.

Charania shared his report during an episode of “NBA Today” ahead of Tuesday’s Celtics-76ers game — Tatum and Brown’s first matchup as opponents.

 

“Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum last actually spoke in person, face-to-face, in France in late June,” Charania said. “This was just right after the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade to the Miami Heat where the Celtics, they offered Jaylen Brown, but they missed out on it. This was also just days before Jaylen Brown’s eventual trade to the 76ers. My understanding is Jaylen Brown confronted and approached Jayson Tatum at a dinner to discuss their future as a duo and where Jayson Tatum stood on all of it.

“It was described to me as a heart-to-heart between these two sides that multiple people witnessed in person. But Jaylen Brown didn’t leave that conversation knowing where his future was at moving forward, and both of these guys, who have been together for about a decade together, they have not spoken since that trade. So whatever had to be hashed out was hashed out before the trade occurred, in person between these two sides, and at the crux of this is Jaylen Brown believing what Jayson Tatum knew or didn’t know in the leadup to his trade.”

Tatum said last month that he reached out to Brown after the trade, which was finalized on July 6. By all accounts, his calls and texts went unanswered. Brown told reporters Sunday that he had not spoken with Tatum since the trade and did not plan to ahead of Tuesday’s game.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” he said. “He’s on his side; I’m on my side. We’re playing basketball. Both of us are trying to win. So there’s nothing to talk about. Just check the ball up.”


©2026 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus