Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum said Thursday he still holds deep affection for former teammate Jaylen Brown, pushing back against months of speculation that their long partnership had soured after Brown was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers.
Appearing on “The Dan Patrick Show,” Tatum was asked about the biggest misconception surrounding his relationship with Brown. He answered without hesitation.
“I mean, there are so many different narratives, so many different opinions and speculation,” Tatum said. “For me, I love that guy.”
The clip, posted by the show’s official account, quickly circulated among NBA fans still processing the breakup of one of the league’s most successful wing pairings. Tatum and Brown spent nine seasons together in Boston after being drafted third overall in consecutive years, Brown in 2016 and Tatum in 2017.
Tatum pointed to a shared résumé that few modern teammates can match.
“What we were able to accomplish together in nine years, we went to the conference finals five times, we went to the championship twice, we won a championship, we’ve shared All-Star Games,” he said.
“You can’t talk about him without talking about me, and vice versa, right? The success that we’ve had as just two young kids growing up in this league and really just pushing each other.”
The two led the Celtics to the 2024 NBA title, Boston’s 18th championship and first since 2008. Brown was named Finals MVP after Boston beat the Dallas Mavericks in five games. They also reached the Finals in 2022 before falling to Golden State.
Their partnership ended in early July when the Celtics sent Brown to Philadelphia for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round selections. The move stunned much of the fan base, coming after Brown posted career-best averages of 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 2025-26 while Tatum recovered from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in the 2025 playoffs.
Tatum missed most of last season after tearing the tendon in his right Achilles during a second-round series against the New York Knicks in May 2025. He returned in March 2026 and played in the first-round series against the 76ers, a matchup Boston lost in seven games.
Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has said the trade was driven by salary-cap constraints under the current collective bargaining agreement, not a personal rift. Two max-level contracts limited Boston’s ability to build around the stars.
Tatum framed the split in those terms.
“Unfortunately, the business of basketball is always going to play a part,” he said. “Nobody has ever played together forever, but it’s not like a thing to be sad or upset about. It’s a thing to celebrate, you know, what we were able to do.”
He closed with a personal tribute.
“He’s a tremendous person and a player. I got nothing but respect and wish him the best as he moves forward.”
The comments follow earlier reporting that the pair’s off-court relationship had grown distant in the year before the trade, even as they remained productive teammates. Tatum has consistently rejected the idea of a feud, saying after the deal that people tried to “pin us against each other.”
The former running mates will now face each other as Atlantic Division rivals. Asked whether he wanted to attack Brown specifically when they meet, Tatum declined to escalate the storyline.
“But the fans, they’ll get what they want to see,” he said.
For a franchise that built a championship core around two homegrown wings, Thursday’s remarks offered a public coda. Tatum, 28, is entering a new chapter with George in the fold. Brown, 29, is joining Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey in Philadelphia with a chance to become the featured scorer he was last season in Boston.
Tatum’s message was simple: the record they built together remains, and so does the regard.
