Jaylen Brown will face the Boston Celtics for the first time in a regular-season game Tuesday, but he has no plans to speak with former teammate Jayson Tatum before tipoff.
“Nope,” Brown said when asked whether he and Tatum had spoken since his July trade to the Philadelphia 76ers. Asked whether he intended to talk to Tatum before Tuesday’s game, Brown was equally direct: “It’s nothing to talk about.”
“I mean, it’s he’s on his side, I’m on my side. We playing basketball. Both of us are trying to win,” Brown said. “So, it’s nothing to talk about. Just check the ball up.”
The 76ers visit the Celtics on Tuesday after improving to 9-2 with Sunday’s 127-121 win over the Chicago Bulls. Brown scored 29 points on 11-of-22 shooting, while Tyrese Maxey added 27 and LeBron James finished with a season-high 22.
Brown described the upcoming matchup as an opportunity for Philadelphia to measure itself against one of the Eastern Conference’s leading teams.
“I think it should be fun. Never let you know a good opportunity for our team to be able to show what we’re made of,” he said. “So I’m looking forward to it. You know, big time matchup, two heavyweights in the East. Let’s get it.”
The relationship between Brown and Tatum has attracted attention since Boston traded Brown to Philadelphia. Their public exchanges intensified in October after Brown responded with a “cap” emoji to Tatum’s claim that he had been caught off guard by the trade.
Tatum subsequently denied any animosity, saying, “This ain’t no f—ing Shaq and Kobe.” Brown later offered his “lamb chops and gravy” remark, adding another layer to the public discussion.
Brown insisted he was not approaching Tuesday’s game with emotional baggage.
“The emotion side of the I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see how we feel when we get out there,” he said. “But as of now, I got no emotion towards nothing. So, I’m just ready to go.”
He also described his departure from Boston as a business decision rather than something he wanted to dwell on.
“Yeah, I mean you know decisions were made. It’s life is business move on. It’s okay,” Brown said. “You know it’s emotions you know you got to pack up and move your stuff your family got to pack up and move. But it’s life.”
Despite the trade, Brown said he still appreciates the city and the relationships he developed there.
“I love Boston. Boston’s a great city. A lot of people I developed relationship with,” he said. “But I’m just focused on what’s in front of me right now.”
Brown also discussed Philadelphia’s progress despite its 9-2 start, saying the team still has areas to improve.
“Even though we’ve been able to win, you know, we still got a lot better to get, a lot more to improve on,” he said. “The result, we’re not so much fixated on the result. It’s more so about the process.”
He emphasized the importance of the team’s supporting cast, praising the second unit for contributing to Philadelphia’s early success.
“Our second unit has been pretty good to start the season as well,” Brown said. “They might not get the notoriety or the credit, but our second unit has contributed in different ways, different guys to help us win games.”
Philadelphia enters Tuesday as the Eastern Conference leader, having opened 9-2 for its best 11-game start since 2000-01.
Brown’s first regular-season meeting with Boston will put his new team against the franchise he spent a decade representing.
