Jaylen Brown trade: Celtics star heading to 76ers in blockbuster, per report

The Boston Celtics are trading Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks, according to ESPN. 

The stunning deal marks the end of Brown’s enormously successful 10-season run in Boston. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft made five All-Star teams with the Celtics. He averaged at least 20 points for seven consecutive seasons, took the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals six times, the NBA Finals twice, and won Finals MVP as Boston won its 18th NBA championship in 2024. Now, he will continue his career in a rival city alongside a core of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. 

Brown played alongside Jayson Tatum since Boston drafted the latter in 2017, but rumors about the Celtics splitting up the pair were common for practically their entire run. The Celtics were linked to a number of superstars like Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant over the years, but never pulled the trigger on a Brown trade during his joint ascent with Tatum. The Celtics were rewarded for that faith with the 2024 title, but things slowly broke down from there.

Tatum tore his Achilles during Boston’s title defense in 2025, and he missed most of the 2025-26 season. Brown had the best statistical season of his career in leading the Celtics to 56 wins, but Boston lost Game 7 of its first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers with Tatum out. That series exposed holes in Boston’s roster that would be hard to address with both Tatum and Brown earning supermax salaries in this enormously restrictive CBA environment.

Brown responded by venting on Twitch after the Celtics were eliminated, claiming the NBA had an agenda against him. Perhaps just as notably, he called this season his “favorite year” of his basketball career rather than the 2024 title season. The Celtics, meanwhile, spent most of June negotiating a trade of Brown to the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo. When Antetokounmpo was ultimately dealt to the Miami Heat, Boston elected to move on from Brown anyway and send him to Philadelphia in a shocker.