A lot has been said about Jayson Tatum’s role in the Celtics’ trade of Jaylen Brown for Paul George and picks. Everyone has their own narrative to push. Some people believe that there was a rift between the two players and one had to go. Some believe that Tatum essentially pushed JB out the door. Some think Tatum had no involvement whatsoever. Most people seem to fall somewhere in between.
For his part, Tatum has said that he had no input and was basically a bystander while the front office handled roster decisions. In today’s NBA, that’s a little tough to believe, as most franchise players are at least consulted on major roster moves, especially when trading a 10-year veteran and an icon of the organization.
Would the Celtics really have traded Brown without Tatum’s blessing? It’s hard to believe. Even if the plan was to move on from Brown and go all-in on Tatum, you’d like to think that he was on board with that plan.
Media not buying Tatum's lack of involvement in trade
There has certainly been plenty of speculation on the topic, with many media members and talking heads taking that narrative and running with it, notably, Stephen A. Smith coming out on ESPN’s First Take in recent days and basically insinuating that this deal would never have happened unless Tatum wanted it.
But despite all that, we continue to hear the opposite from the Celtics and from Jayson Tatum. Brad Stevens has insisted that JT wasn’t involved in the deal at all, and Tatum has said the same thing whenever the topic has come up. He has acknowledged that he understands the business of the NBA and realized what was possible, but insisted he had no say in the matter.
Tatum continues to insist he was caught off guard
That theme continued in the most recent episode of the miniseries chronicling Tatum’s offseason, The Summer of Jayson. In episode three, titled The Sit Down, Tatum talked about what it was like when he found out about the trade, saying he was in Las Vegas playing pickup when an assistant coach told him to put a towel over his head and not to react, before telling him that Brown had just been traded to the 76ers.
"Bro, we was in Vegas, I just got done playing pickup. Sham walked over. He hand me the towel. He like, 'Yo, put this over your face. Don't react. They just traded him (Jaylen).' I'm like, oh sh*t. I'm like, where? He said Philly. I said, "You traded him down the street?” So I was just as much caught off guard as the rest of the world.”
Was Tatum truly just as much caught off guard as the rest of the world? We may never actually know. On the surface, it’s hard to believe. But at the same time, it’s all we keep hearing, and his reactions seem extremely genuine. He’s obviously not oblivious to the world around him, and I imagine he had an idea that JB was being shopped and that this long-rumored deal may actually happen.
But at the same time, I tend to take him at his word and buy into the fact that he had no idea what was coming or when, and was fully stunned to hear that he was going to Philly. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. What’s done is done. Tatum is a professional and seems to have moved on.
If he really didn’t want JB traded, I’m sure he could have thrown himself in front of this and stopped it, but do we really want a franchise player trying to play GM? We’ve seen other stars try that, and it rarely works out. He has every reason to trust Brad Stevens, and that’s what he did. He may not have liked it, but he accepted it, and that’s exactly what every fan needs to do as well.
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