Plot Twist: According To Brian Scalabrine, Jaylen Brown Actually Demanded A Trade From The Celtics And Was Rooting To Be Traded To Milwaukee

What, you thought we were nearing the end of this entire saga? Ha! You fool. I'd advise you to buckle up because unfortunately, we're just getting started. At this point, we're in the midst of an all out war. At least that's how it feels. Every day brings something new to the discourse. You have David Aldridge going on the radio and essentially penalizing Jayson Tatum for trying to react to all of this like an adult, which was weird. As if trying to be mature about the situation is a bad thing? I guess it is when it's Jayson Tatum doing it. 

And then there's Scal. He's someone I would consider pretty plugged in when it comes to the inner workings of the Boston Celtics. Between his playing career and post-playing career, I put more stock in what he's saying compared to national media guys who may not be privy to the same information. Which is why on his own radio show today, Scal dropped what I would consider to a pretty massive bomb (if true)

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I wouldn't exactly say Scal is a "hot take artist" who says insane shit in an effort to "go viral" or whatever the fuck we're subjected to on ESPN and other shows. So for him to put this out there is…..very notable. It also changes pretty much EVERYTHING about this entire situation. 

Now, is it fair to wonder if Scal is getting this from the team side in an effort to get the word out there? Absolutely. Someone told him about it, and I'm not sure who would know about the things he talked about unless it was coming from somewhere on the Celts side. That doesn't make it 10000% true, as the team could just be trying to fight back, but it's certainly notable. 

What do we know? We know via Shams that there were reports that Brad Stevens was apparently shopping Jaylen Brown at the February deadline, all while he was having his monster season. 

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That certainly makes a little more sense if we now add the idea that Jaylen had demanded a trade. When did that happen? Is it possible it happened over the course of the year where maybe they started talking about his pending extension? Brad wasn't going to do that, so he started shopping him at the deadline. That's plausible, no? Going to the organization with a list of demands? I feel like you can't just make that shit up out of thin air. 

Then we get to the part where he was rooting for the Milwaukee trade. This is something that I've always wondered about when it came to that entire sequence back in late June. After the season, Brad talked about how he had conversations with Jaylen and his camp that the Giannis convos were happening. Yet after the trade, on his stream Jaylen talked about how he didn't love how things went down and the communication was bad. What do I think happened? I think the team told Jaylen about the Giannis trade and he accepted it because at the end of the day, it's Giannis. There are only so many ways to make that money line up. But what Brad did not tell him was that they were actually trading him no matter what. That this wasn't a unique case of Giannis being available, in reality, Brad was trading him regardless to whoever would send the best package available. Given his not-so-great market due to his salary and pending extension, that ended up being Philly.

So to hear Scal say he was excited about the trade and was recruiting other guys to MIL, it seems a little weird that he's now trying to beef with Jayson Tatum no? Jayson Tatum didn't decide to not send him to the Bucks and instead to Philly. That was Brad Stevens. And based on how Scal is telling it, it was the result of Jaylen Brown's own request! He wanted to be traded if these supposed demands weren't met, so he got traded! What were the demands anyway? I'd love to know that nugget.

You can then see how it then doesn't make a ton of sense to be singling out Tatum like Jaylen has been. I'd say it's pretty fucking lame if YOU were the one who essentially demanded the trade, and instead of owning that, you try and frame it as Jayson Tatum was the one who kicked you out of Boston? That's pretty fucked. 

It then makes you think about how after the trade, Jaylen suggested Tatum never reached out/they haven't spoken. Then on Friday night, Tatum talked about how he texted and called him after. So….in all of this, who is lying? Because make no mistake, someone is lying. Are Tatum, Scal, and Brad Stevens all lying? Is Jaylen lying? Will we ever get the truth about what happened (probably not)?

If this reporting from Scal is accurate, it changes EVERYTHING about the discourse around the trade and really the entire trade as a whole. Now that it's out there, I'd love to see what Jaylen says about it. He's wanted to keep this going in the public/media, well now what?