Sometimes, NBA fans prove that the discourse surrounding the Association is far less nuanced and thoughtful than most any other professional sports league. Before, during, and after the Boston Celtics knocked off the Dallas Mavericks on March 1 by a 138-110 score, that proved to be the case once more.
Coming out of the contest, many on X were talking about a hypothetical Jayson Tatum-for-Luka Doncic swap -- something neither the Mavs nor Celtics front office has ever suggested is even a blip on the radar, let alone a substantiated rumor -- and the Cs side of the equation couldn't be more bearish.
Check out what happened when one poster suggested that the Celtics would trade Tatum for Luka straight up...
"No Celtics fan would," one poster prefaced before saying, "Its like trading for James Harden. Like why are y'all like this."
"Celtic fans didn’t want to trade Jaylen Brown for Kevin Durant, what makes you think we’d trade Tatum for Luka?" asked another.
"If I didn't value defense then yes but I'm not an idiot and I don't want my star player to be a cone," quipped one fan.
"I'm not kidding when I say this, this makes the Celtics much, MUCH worse," stressed another.
"No we wouldn’t," one fan prefaced before saying, "We want our players to play defense and not just look to put up good offensive numbers. We got enjoy that side of basketball with IT."
"Not a single Celtics fan would agree with this," said another.
Jayson Tatum is an untouchable for Boston Celtics front office
There are a few players in the NBA who have "untouchable" status with their teams. Steph Curry has that with the Golden State Warriors. Bam Adebayo has that status on the Miami Heat after he was kept out of failed negotiations for Damian Lillard entirely. Victory Wembanyama is as untouchable as they come.
Tatum is most certainly in that category as things stand right now. If things went south for the Celtics for whatever reason, exploring a Jaylen Brown trade would be the move. It'd take years of failure for Tatum's name to be on the trade block.
Don't count on that. And while you're at it, you can go ahead and count out a Tatum-Doncic swap entirely.