"I Love That Guy" - Jayson Tatum Cleared The Air About His Relationship With Jaylen Brown Ahead Of The Upcoming NBA Season
Brian Babineau. Getty Images.As much as I'd like to avoid the topic completely, there's no denying that the Jayson Tatum vs Jaylen Brown discourse is going to be a major storyline of the 2026-27 NBA season.
After having to deal with all that bullshit for nearly a decade while the outside world (mainly ESPN) tried to break them apart during their time together and the endless drama surrounding people trying to decipher subtweets or comments and how it meant they actually hated each other etc, it was all very exhausting.
But now, they're officially broken up. And not only are they broken up, but Jaylen Brown was traded within the division to a longtime rival in Philly. While I'll always wish we got to see both players play their entire careers together and retire having only played for the Celtics, that's just not the reality in which we now live. Now, you could argue that the success either guy may have moving forward has a very good chance of having to go through the other. Add in the context of last season and the success the Celts had prior to Tatum's return, and it adds even more juice to the entire pending discourse.
So as we inch closer and closer to the start of camp and the start of the new NBA season, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Tatum was once again asked about his relationship with Jaylen Brown. Despite this question being asked 1000000000000000000 times over the last 10 years, I get it. Given everything that happened this summer, this is only going to be the beginning
While I do believe him here, I've also watched enough Jayson Tatum interviews to know when I'm getting the PR masterclass answer. After a little slip up earlier this summer
there was a 0.0% chance that Tatum was ever going to come close to saying anything that could be misinterpreted/spun/twisted etc when it came to the topic of Jaylen Brown or what their relationship might be. This is arguably the most PR and media-trained player in the entire league. That's sort of what made that comment during his camp so surprising, it felt like he had a glitch in his PR software or something. So just be prepared for the exact same type of answer every time he's asked about it over the course of the season. It's going to come up ahead of every single BOS/PHI game, it'll come up if they meet each other in the postseason, there will be no escaping it.
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You could see Dan Patrick did his best to try and get a controversial quote or something along those lines, but again, there was no chance Tatum was going to take the bait. He's also not lying when he said he plans on guarding everyone when the Celts play the Sixers, seeing as how he's one of the few players in the NBA who can guard 1-5. But you're out of your mind if you don't think both players will be going at each other in those games. It's one thing when they did it in the All Star game when it was all jokes
but now they're rivals. Now there's real motivation to bury the other. Jaylen to prove he's the better player, Tatum to do the same. All of their possessions facing each other will be put under a microscope for the rest of their careers, that's how this stuff works. Even though they are no longer teammates, they will absolutely still be compared from here on out. If you thought that shit would end once they were finally split up, I have bad news for you.
And I can't lie, no matter what the outcome of those possessions looks like, I already hate it. Perhaps it'll get easier as time goes on, but at the moment it's still weird as shit that all of this actually happened.
Tatum also touched on his return from injury which I found to be pretty interesting
and as a reminder, he was pretty damn good!
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If that version was actually 80% Tatum as he suggests, then I feel pretty damn good about what things will look like moving forward.
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As I said, in my perfect ideal world, these two would have continued to do their thing as the best duo in the NBA for their entire careers. Two of the greatest Celtics we've ever had the privilege of watching, and that's not even really a debate.
At the same time, Brad Stevens & Co made a choice, and the entire future of the franchise depends on him being right.