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07/01 22:06 CDT Another blockbuster: Jaylen Brown getting traded by Celtics to
76ers for Paul George, draft picks
Another blockbuster: Jaylen Brown getting traded by Celtics to 76ers for Paul
George, draft picks
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
Jaylen Brown's time in Boston has come to a surprising end, with the Celtics
deciding to trade him to one of their most storied rivals.
Brown --- the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league's
fourth-leading scorer this past season --- is getting traded by the Celtics to
the Philadelphia 76ers, a person with knowledge of the deal's terms said
Wednesday.
Boston is getting Paul George, along with a slew of draft capital that could
become two first-round picks and two second-round picks, said the person who
spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade does
not yet have the required league approvals.
ESPN first reported the trade agreement, and the terms were later confirmed by
The Boston Globe.
Add this move to the list of blockbuster moves across the NBA so far this
offseason. LeBron James is leaving the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent, and
now this trade joins a long list of moves that involve All-Star-caliber players
--- like Giannis Antetokounmpo going from Milwaukee to Miami, Kawhi Leonard and
Brandon Ingram headlining a swap between the Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles
Clippers, and Ja Morant getting traded to Portland by Memphis.
Now, this.
"Welcome to Philly, JB!" Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro posted on social media.
"Sixers get way better and, as a bonus, the Celtics got worse!"
It's a move that breaks up what has been one of the league's most successful
1-2 punches in Brown and Jayson Tatum, who helped carry the Celtics to the 2024
NBA title.
Tatum missed most of this past season while recovering from an Achilles tear
that happened during the 2025 playoffs, meaning Brown had to carry even more of
the load for Boston --- and he wound up with career-best averages of 28.7
points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.
It seemed, though, that Brown has felt underappreciated, especially after it
became known that Boston had included him in trade talks with Milwaukee when
Antetokounmpo was on the market.
"Nobody has won more combined regular-season and playoff games since I entered
the league 10 years ago," Brown posted on social media over the weekend. He's
right: The Celtics have won 523 games with Brown in the lineup, including
playoff contests, which is six more than Denver has won with Nikola Jokic over
that span.
Brown now gets to be part of a squad in Philadelphia alongside guard Tyrese
Maxey and center Joel Embiid --- someone who Brown recently called a flopper on
a livestream.
"Joel Embiid is a great player, one of the best bigs in (expletive) basketball
history," Brown said. "Flops. He know it. This ain't breaking news."
Brown, Maxey (the league's No. 5 scorer this past season) and Embiid (a
two-time NBA scoring champion) could become a positively frightening trio in
Philadelphia, and the Celtics deciding to play a role in creating such a
triumvirate only adds to the intrigue surrounding why they wanted to trade
Brown in the first place.
The trade ends a tremendously disappointing two-year stint for George, who was
traded with two years left on a four-year, $212 million free-agent contract.
The 36-year-old George never approached his nine-time All-Star form in
Philadelphia and his tenure was marred by a 25-game suspension last season for
flunking a drug test.
He averaged just 16.7 points in his two seasons in Philadelphia after topping
the 20-point mark in nine straight seasons with Indiana, Oklahoma City and the
Los Angeles Clippers.
Brown is the latest big name brought in to team with All-Stars and franchise
cornerstones Embiid and Maxey. Brown can try and lead the Sixers to their first
title since 1983; a feat a steady string of stars from Ben Simmons to James
Harden to George failed to do when paired with Embiid and Maxey to make a Big
Three.
George cited mental health reasons as to why he failed a drug test and was
suspended in late January for violating the terms of the NBA's anti-drug
program. His first year in Philly was marred by knee and adductor injuries that
resulted in the forward having one of the worst years of his NBA career.
George averaged 16.2 points in just 41 games, easily his lowest scoring average
in a full season since he averaged 12.1 points for Indiana in his second NBA
season. He then had surgery in July on his left knee after he was injured
during a workout and missed the first 12 games of this past season.
This was the first blockbuster pulled off under new team president Mike Gansey,
who replaced the fired Daryl Morey.
Morey was fired after the Sixers failed to advance out of the second round of
the Eastern Conference playoffs in his tenure and they were swept by the
eventual NBA champion Knicks in the second round last season --- but only after
erasing a 3-1 deficit to oust Boston in Round 1.
"Philadelphia is a good basketball team," Brown said after the Game 7 loss to
the 76ers, surely not knowing at that time that he would be joining them a
couple months later.
His job now will be to make that good basketball team even better.
___
AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
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