Celtics trade Jaylen Brown to the 76ers for Paul George. One of the worst deals in Boston sports history
Boston tried to trade Brown for Giannis. That fell through. Then they traded him anyway - for an ageing Paul George and picks. The NBA champion is heading to Philadelphia. The Celtics are falling apart.
The Boston Celtics have traded Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks. The NBA champion, the franchise cornerstone, the player who won a ring in green just two years ago, is gone. The trade was confirmed by ESPN's Shams Charania and reported by multiple outlets on July 1.
The deal ends a decade with the Celtics for Brown, who was drafted fifth overall in 2016 and grew from a raw athlete into one of the most physically dominant two-way wings in the league. He averaged 25.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in the 2024 championship season. He signed a five-year, $304 million supermax extension in 2023 - at the time the largest contract in NBA history. He gave it all to Boston. Boston gave him away for an aging, injury-prone wing, two first-round picks and two second-round picks.
The context makes it stranger. Boston spent weeks this offseason trying to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo from Milwaukee with Brown as the centrepiece of the offer. That deal fell apart when Milwaukee chose to send Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat. The expectation, once the Giannis trade collapsed, was that Brown would stay and the Celtics would regroup. Instead, according to reports, the relationship between Brown and the franchise had deteriorated past the point of repair. The Giannis pursuit - and the public knowledge that Boston had tried to move him - appears to have broken something that could not be fixed.
What Boston gets back: Paul George, who is 36 years old in September and has missed significant time with injuries in five of the last seven seasons. Plus draft picks that will not mature until 2028 at the earliest. The reaction from around the league was immediate. An anonymous general manager told Bleacher Report this was "highway robbery." The Boston Globe called it one of the worst trades in Boston sports history.
Philadelphia gets Brown at 29 years old, in his prime, to play alongside Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid. The Sixers have spent years assembling pieces around an injured Embiid. Now, if Embiid can stay healthy, they have a genuine title contender. Brown and Maxey running pick-and-roll with Embiid at the five is the kind of offensive architecture that wins championships. The 76ers got an A+ grade from CBS Sports. Nobody gave Boston anything close.
The Celtics still have Jayson Tatum, who reportedly had no role in and no advance knowledge of the decision. They still have depth. But they are measurably worse today than they were yesterday, trading a 29-year-old champion for a 35-year-old recovering from injury and futures. The offseason that began with a swing for Giannis has ended with the quietest possible way to break up a championship core.
Brown plays for Philadelphia now. The Celtics will rebuild around Tatum. The NBA world is still trying to make sense of it. For all the latest NBA news, follow the basketball news.