Latest Jayson Tatum clip opens door for ugly fallout with Jaylen Brown

The divorce between the Boston Celtics and Jaylen Brown might become an ugly one. Three weeks after the star forward was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, some have speculated that a recent clip of Jayson Tatum speaking to kids at his basketball camp was actually a shot at his former teammate.

“Being around somebody that feels like they know it all, I don’t wanna be around that person,” Tatum shared to the group. “I don’t wanna be the smartest person in the room, I want to learn from somebody else.”

Typically, I’m one to diffuse these sorts of things. Quotes often get clipped or shared out of context nowadays, and the full sentiment gets lost in the equation.

This time…

Eh.

This might be as direct of a shot as Tatum, who is always thoughtful and reserved about what he says publicly, would ever take. For starters, this was a clip that he chose to share to his Instagram story. It isn’t your typical case of “someone else took what I said and framed it in a bad light.”

He was the one who framed it.

Jaylen Brown: "The Smartest Man in the Room"

There’s a chance that he did so because he truly had no idea how close to home it may hit for Brown.

Many fans and media members have spent the weeks since the trade asking themselves why the front office would move on from one of its franchise pillars -- for a lackluster price, nonetheless.

You would’ve thought Brown would’ve garnered more than a 36-year-old Paul George, a 2028 first-round pick swap, Philadelphia’s 2031 first, and two second rounders.

The price itself seemed somewhat of a slight when the news broke. Then, the national media smear campaign got underway. Talking heads around the country tried to make sense of the deal, blaming Brown and his consistent painting of this past season as his favorite, despite winning a championship two years ago.

Some, like Collin Cowherd blamed the 29-year-old’s “smartest man in the room persona” for the fallout. 

That quote went viral online. Some echoed Cowherd’s sentiment, while others defended Brown for not solely being defined by his athletic gifts. It would’ve been pretty difficult for Tatum not to have gotten wind of it, at least to some degree.

Now, this could all just be confirmation bias, too. For those unfamiliar, it’s the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing beliefs.

In this case, Celtics fans can’t figure out why the team was so comfortable moving on from Brown, so they’re assuming something was wrong. Tatum’s speech hypothetically being a jab at JB would play into that, wouldn’t it?

We’ll likely never know JT’s true intentions, but you never know, I guess.

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