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. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
Brown — the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league's fourth-leading scorer this past season (averaging 28.7 points) — is being 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. 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.
This move breaks up one of the league's most successful 1-2 punches in Brown and Jayson Tatum. 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 Giannis Antetokounmpo was on the market. "Nobody has won more combined regular-season and playoff games since I entered the league 10 years ago," Brown previously said.
This trade joins a long list of blockbuster moves across the NBA so far this offseason: LeBron James leaving the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent, 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.