Bill Streicher-Imagn Images / Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
Oct 22, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Jaylen Brown (7) reacts after a score against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the fourth quarter at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Oct 14, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) during the second half against the Charlotte Hornets at TD Garden.
The already heated rivalry between the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics just turned up yet another notch after new Sixers star Jaylen Brown called former teammate Jayson Tatum a liar.
Brown, the No. 3 overall pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, spent his first 10 seasons in Boston and won NBA Finals MVP en route to a championship in 2024.
However, the team parted ways with him in the offseason, sending him to Philadelphia in a deal that involved fellow star Paul George and a pair of first-round draft picks.
Jayson Tatum on the Jaylen Brown trade in a recent interview:
“I was just as much caught off guard as the rest of the world.”
Jaylen Brown in the comments: 🧢 https://t.co/dia6lscJ2E
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) October 23, 2026
Tatum claimed he was shocked when he first caught wind of the trade. But Brown says that’s a lie.
Jaylen Brown Calls Cap On Jayson Tatum
In a new documentary, Tatum claims he was in a workout in Las Vegas when his trainer told him about the trade.
“He handed me a towel,” Tatum remembered. “He was like, ‘Yo, put this on your face. Don’t react. They just traded him.’
“I’m like, ‘Oh, s—,’” Tatum continued. “I’m like, ‘Where?’ He said Philly. I said, ‘You traded him down the street?’”
Brown responded to the story with a picture of an emoji of a hat, which represents the word “cap,” essentially calling Tatum a liar.
The two have long had a tenuous relationship behind the scenes, with reports suggesting a power struggle over who the face of the franchise was.
But Tatum painted a different picture.”
“I will always say that that I knew every time I stepped on that court that when it was time to go to war, I looked to my left and my right and No. 7 was over there, I knew that he was going to do whatever it took for us to try to win,” he said. “The way we pushed each other, I definitely made him better, and he made me better. And we made our team better, we made this organization better.”
Clearly Tatum remembers things far more fondly than Brown. The Celtics travel to Philadelphia to face Brown and the 76ers on Nov. 10.