There were a lot of crazy takes and reactions to the wild Jaylen Brown trade to the 76ers, but it’s hard to top the story told by Bill Simmons on his most recent podcast. He didn’t immediately post any reaction to the stunning deal, eventually announcing he would go live the next day, which seemed odd.
But it was worth the wait, as we found out that Simmons, the head of The Ringer and one of the most famous and front-facing Celtics fans around, was almost-too-perfectly in the midst of a colonoscopy when the trade was first reported. He stumbled out of the room and was greeted with the news by his wife.
“[I] come out, my wife’s waiting to pick me up, and she goes, “they traded Jaylen Brown!”...I had just woken up from anesthesia… I’m not really coherent, and I’m like, “where’d he go?” and she’s like, “to Philly for Paul George and 2 first round picks”. And I’m like, “I think I’m dead. I think I died. The anesthesia killed me, and now I’m a dead person.”
The anxious wait for this trade to happen has been crushing, and as a Celtics fan, every time my phone buzzed for the last few weeks, I’ve had a sinking feeling that this was going to be the dreaded news about Brown finally being traded.
The irony of Simmons finding out in this fashion is almost too much. Even as a fellow fan, it’s hard not to chuckle at the thought of this all timing up so magically, in a comedic sense. Celtics haters are having their laugh, and as much as it hurts, and as much as I’m still optimistic about the team’s future, I have to admit that the Celtics are the laughingstock of NBA media at the moment.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe it’s justified in any way. I hate seeing Jaylen go, but I understand the vision, and I’m confident the team will be very good this season and will get even better down the road. But that’s not the perception around the league. Everyone is getting their shots off on Boston and Brad Stevens, and all we can do is sit back and say, “Just wait.”
It’s a tough spot to be in, and this story from Simmons, while an instant classic, certainly isn’t helping the sentiment around the league right now. He went on to break down the trade in more detail and seemed to come around and almost talk himself into it by the end of the episode, pondering if another move is next. But the trade evoking that type of response is pretty representative of how Celtics nation felt.
The dust has started to settle, and things don’t feel as bad, but colonoscopy and anesthesia or not, it’s hard to blame any Celtics fan who thought they were dead after hearing that Jaylen Brown was traded to the 76ers.
Add us as a preferred source on Google