It’s sad to see everyone in the media rush to take sides immediately after the breakup between the Celtics and Jaylen Brown. Believe it or not, we don’t all have to take sides and treat this like a middle school drama. We can be adults and recognize that Jaylen had an amazing 10-years in Boston; he’ll always be loved by the city and fanbase, but due to some elements of his game, his contract, and the CBA, it was time for both parties to move on. And that’s okay.
But for some people, clearly that’s not enough, and the story has to be sensationalized for clicks and views. The worst offender that I’ve seen has been Marc J. Spears of ESPN. He put his foot in his mouth a few weeks ago by making up a story about the Celtics’ 2024 banner ceremony, pretending that the team somehow disrespected Brown during the event, which was entirely fabricated.
Now, Spears is back at it, as he went on NBA Today on Thursday and tried to make it sound like the Celtics were mistreating Brown and showing favoritism toward Jayson Tatum, as if that had anything to do with the trade.
"I'm hearing that in a lot of ways Jaylen [Brown] probably felt like Jayson [Tatum] was the favorite."@MarcJSpears on the Celtics' decision to part ways with Jaylen Brown 👀 pic.twitter.com/9X6R3CeXdz
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) July 16, 2026
First of all. Duh? What am I missing here? Obviously, NBA teams give preferential treatment to their superstar and best player, which Tatum has clearly been for a long time. That’s no knock on JB, who is a great player, but there has never been much debate over which one is actually the franchise player.
The media is ignoring how NBA superstar treatment actually works
For Spears to act like it’s some act of treachery or disrespect for the Celtics to hire some of Tatum’s friends or announce him last during introductions is ridiculous, and he knows it. This is simply how NBA teams operate. Tatum isn’t asking for any special treatment, as Spears even said himself, but teams feel obligated to go above and beyond to appease their franchise player.
The Celtics have done nothing but help and allow Jaylen to flourish since the moment he arrived in Boston. He has worked his ass off and become an amazing player, and the Celtics have supported that development every step of the way. Oh, and they also rewarded him with a 4-year, $103 million rookie extension, and then a 5-year, $285 million supermax extension after that. Talk about an odd way to show disrespect.
This is just another false, twisted narrative that Spears is pushing to try and create some immature melodrama that doesn’t actually exist. There’s no real beef or animosity here, and no catty fighting behind the scenes. This decision was based on basketball and business. Sorry if that doesn’t keep the lights on over at ESPN, but Spears is a Hall of Fame journalist who should be above this kind of nonsense.
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