Jaylen Brown Was Rightfully Given A Key To The City During His Farewell Celebration With The City Of Boston

Juan Ocampo. Getty Images.

You know, just when I think enough time has passed that it'll finally be possible to begin turning the page and moving past the Jaylen Brown trade, something comes across my desk that brings me right back to square one.

I understand why it happened, we don't need to rehash it for the millionth time in the last two months. But what I do know is that seeing all the clips from Jaylen Brown's farewell celebration at his 741 Frequency Fest was emotional as hell. Those wounds that I thought were starting to heal? Ripped right the fuck open once again.

I can't lie, that shit hurts. Part of what makes this trade so tough is the fact that it's not just the basketball stuff. It's everything else. It's the fact that Jaylen Brown truly became a part of Boston. I can't think of a current Celtic who did more for the community and had such a high-level connection to the city than Jaylen. Shit, you could even say that when factoring in all of the four major sports. So not only is he arguably one of the greatest Celtics of all time, he's one of the greatest Boston athletes of all time. 

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If we're being honest, the whole thing feels so surreal. Maybe it's because this all happened within the last few months, but it's a situation that even today I still can't believe is actually real. It just feels weird, I don't know how else to explain it. Even knowing all of the context around the decision and blah blah blah, it doesn't change the fact that the whole thing feels weird. 

I will say it is cool that Jaylen and the city got together for one last celebration and send off, that's also not something you see happen all that often when a player gets traded. They leave the city, and that's it. If anything, this just shows how big a part of Boston Jaylen has been over the last decade. He may as well be a Masshole at this point, so it was no surprise to see him being gifted a street as well as the key to the city

If any Boston athlete deserves something like that, it's probably Jaylen Brown. I also love how he was rocking the championship ring during the whole event too. What a nice reminder of a much better timeline

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It feels like just yesterday Jaylen Brown got drafted and immediately promised to go to war for the city of Boston

which he absolutely did, both on and off the floor. To think here we are now 10 years later and he's being given the key to the city during his farewell celebration after being traded to the goddamn Sixers? Pretty crazy. 

I'd say today helped serve as some closure and naturally the next step would be wishing Jaylen the best moving forward, but that can't happen. I now have to pray on his downfall, which sucks. Any success he has means the Sixers have success, and I am certainly not rooting for that under any circumstances. That's another underrated part of why this trade sucks. 

Next up? The first return to the Garden and the tribute video. That's going to be emotional as hell as well, just like it was with KG and Paul Pierce. That's only going to be topped by the eventual jersey retirement, if you ask me. Sucks it won't be happening as a lifelong Celtic, but that's the NBA sometimes.