No one envisioned Jaylen Brown's exit from the Boston Celtics would turn out the way that it did. Even so, Brown proved enough from 2016 to 2026 that he deserves to be mentioned among Celtics legends. Among those who agree happens to be the man who traded him: Brad Stevens.
Stevens admitted to The Boston Globe's Avery Hill that Brown's No. 7 will likely be retired in the rafters when his playing days are over, all while acknowledging how hard it was to trade Brown.
"I get a lot of emails and a lot of people that ask about wanting to be a GM," Stevens said. "I'm like, 'I wish you would've been around last summer when we basically had to trade Jrue Holiday.' That's like brutal. Or we go through this long arduous process and ultimately decide to trade Jaylen, whose numbers will likely go up in the rafters in Boston. Not fun."
So that puts any speculation to rest in case anyone was wondering. It's absolutely the right decision too.
Jaylen Brown's story in Boston was legendary
The best way to summarize Brown's story in Boston is this: he went from the draft pick everyone booed on draft night (though it wasn't him they were specifically booing) to the player everyone booed the front office for trading.
That's how far Brown came along in Boston. He became a player no one wanted to give up. It's true that since then, it's become easier to warm to the idea that the Celtics can replace the production Brown gave them. At the same time, that doesn't take away from the legacy he left.
The most prominent theme of Brown's time in Boston was stepping up. Whenever the Celtics forced Brown to expand his role, he more often than not rewarded them for their faith in him. When Gordon Hayward went down in 2017, that forced Brown to become more of a focal point, a test he passed with flying colors.
That only got worse when Kyrie Irving went down just before the following postseason, but again, Brown stepped up when the Celtics needed him to in that legendary 2018 run. Many also forget that he did that while nursing a gimpy hamstring.
After the Irving nightmare unfolded in 2019, Boston asked Brown to step up after all the firepower that infamous team lost. Yet again, Brown proved he was capable of stepping up to replace all that was lost, culminating in another fruitful playoff run.
Jaylen Brown's Celtics legacy: Stepping up when he was needed
It's worth noting that Brown had his shortcomings. He sadly couldn't step up when Jayson Tatum's badly-timed ankle injury ruined Boston's chances of pulling off the feat of coming back from 3-0 against Miami. However, that also demonstrated another quality about Brown: taking losses on the chin.
Brown never let things weigh him down, as losing to the Heat in 2023 only pushed him to get better, and when Boston won it all in 2024, one could argue Brown's legacy got the biggest boost from it. On top of winning a title, he won Eastern Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP, two awards he deserved for his efforts.
In his final season in Boston, Brown took on his biggest challenge yet: being the alpha dog with Tatum down for the count. There doesn't need to be much elaboration to the fact that Brown had his best season ever when leading a Celtics team that just got stripped of most of its title DNA.
Yeah, Stevens traded him, but that had more to do with what was best for the team long-term than it was about Brown's capabilities as a player. If anyone ever asks if Brown should get his number retired with the Celtics, that should be answered with another question.
"Is that supposed to be a serious question?"
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