Tuesday night is the night. We’ve finally made it. The Celtics travel to Philadelphia and will take on Jaylen Brown and the 76ers for the very first time. Boston and Philly are leading the Eastern Conference, with the Sixers at 9-2 and the Celtics at 8-2. They met twice in the preseason, but neither game featured the teams at full strength. So, this is it.
It’s the first real meeting since they met in the playoffs last season, when the 76ers erased a 3-1 deficit, came back to eliminate the Celtics, end their season, and end the Jaylen Brown era in Boston.
And the rest is history. Brown started popping up in trade rumors. And next thing you know, he was shipped to Philadelphia, of all places, with Paul George and draft picks coming back to Boston. It was stunning in the moment, and while things have started to make more sense from the Celtics’ perspective, it was still a wild shake-up that has left ripple effects around the NBA world and hasn’t lost one bit of steam.
Celtics/Sixers one of the most anticipated regular season games in NBA
Since then, we’ve had nothing but back-and-forth, mostly coming from Brown’s side. He has called out the Celtics for “packing [him] up”, he has called out Tatum for lying about being surprised when the trade went down, he has talked about how there may not be beef with JT, but there’s some “lamb chops and gravy”, and he has talked about how Tatum has a great PR team.
Tatum addressed the situation once, saying that he reached out to JB after the trade, but confirmed that the two have not spoken. But Brown has reiterated the lack of communication and stated that the two won’t talk ahead of Tuesday night’s showdown and that there’s nothing to talk about.
Add all of this smack talk on top of all the discourse around the actual trade. Add it to the results of their recent playoff series. And add it to the long history of the rivalry between the two teams. And what you’ve got is one of the most hyped up regular season meetings in recent NBA regular-season history.
Will Tatum and Brown shake hands? Will they guard each other? Will bad blood spill onto the court? Will JB go off against his old team? Will PG? There’s so much intrigue around this game, and with the whole world watching, we should get treated to an awesome show.
This is just the first game of many between Tatum and Brown
But at the end of the day, it’s just one game. It’s a big one, sure, but it’s just one win or loss in the standings for each team. It’s early November. There are 70+ more games before the playoffs. And these teams will play many more times.
If the Celtics win, that doesn’t mean they won the trade, and Brown is a bum. If the Sixers win, that doesn’t mean they fleeced Boston, and the organization will never recover. If Brown and Tatum don’t interact, that doesn’t mean they hate each other. If they hug it out, that doesn’t mean they’re best friends.
Whatever happens, the think pieces that come out after this game are going to be incredibly obnoxious and over the top. Try to focus on the big picture and enjoy this game, but realize that it’s just that. Don’t feed into the narratives, don’t go overboard with the discourse, and don’t overreact to the results. It’s a long season, and this rivalry is just getting started.
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