In terms of raw reaction to hearing a trade, it's difficult to compare the Jaylen Brown news to anything else we've experienced in modern-day Boston sports. And make no mistake: We've got plenty of trades to work with in the comparison department.
Perhaps the closest cousin would be the Jimmy Garoppolo trade to San Francisco in October of 2017. The particulars and details were nothing alike, but the general reactions to the Garoppolo trade were twofold.
One: That's ... it? Seriously?
Two: Why ... now?
Befuddlement. Bewilderment. General confusion. Mass hysteria. While individual reactions always differ, the two trades are similar because just about no one could even pretend to be happy with the return on what was believed to be a valuable asset.
Of course, the comparisons end there, because the Jaylen Brown trade was much, much worse.
Brown finished sixth in MVP voting and in All-NBA voting last year. He's made five All-Star teams, two All-NBA teams, and, of course, was crowned Eastern Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP during the Celtics' championship run just two short years ago. (When Garoppolo was traded from the Patriots, he had thrown a total of 94 passes in the NFL and had more injuries than wins in his first three and a half seasons. Due to a strong jawline, a winning smile and a cool nickname, he was massively overrated. Still, a second-round pick was a bit underwhelming for a potential starting-caliber NFL quarterback.)
Nevertheless, the Celtics clearly wanted to move on from Brown. We all understand that desire to some degree. Even if we disagreed, we knew where they stood, and we were expecting a deal of some kind this summer.
And still -- still! -- we were left shell-shocked by the deal for Paul George plus picks.
Because. It. Is. So. Bad.
The great Jack Simone said it may "very well may be the worst trade in the history of the organization" and was, at the very least, "a horrendous trade" for the Celtics. ESPN gave a D+ grade to the Celtics (and an A-minus grade to the Sixers). CBS Sports listed George's contract as the fourth-worst in the NBA last season. Spotrac had it as the second-worst. More than 24 hours after news of the trade broke, most people are still waiting for Brad Stevens to step before a podium, say "sike!' into a microphone, and walk away, thus allowing Brown and Jayson Tatum to lead a championship contender in the 2026-27 season.
But that's not happening. Jaylen Brown is gone, and even if he might be a touch overrated in some circles, he will help the Sixers compete for Eastern Conference supremacy next season.
And in Boston ... who knows. It doesn't look good. And after waiting a year following Tatum's torn Achilles, this summer was supposed to be the good one. The fun one. The Celtics-are-ready-to-hang-a-few-more-banners one. Instead it's the overpay-for-Mitchell Robinson-and-sign-the-ancient-Mike Conley-and-acquire-Paul George-for-some-reason one.
Brutal.
Yet while the present and near future of the Celtics looks dreary, and while the end of Brown's Celtics career was tremendously unceremonious, we should at least take a moment to appreciate Brown's time in Boston for what it was.
Fans at the Garden booed the selection of Brown with the No. 3 overall pick back in 2016. Those same fans booed then-owner Wyc Grousbeck when he addressed the crowd after making the pick. The fans wanted the "fireworks" that Wyc had promised, or Buddy Hield, or Providence star Kris Dunn, or something other than the guard from Cal who couldn't shoot.
Yet as Brown said in his farewell message on Thursday, he "showed up every day" and put in the work, improving upon his collegiate 3-point percentage of 29.4% to 34.1% as an NBA rookie, making Second Team All-Rookie on a team that earned the No. 1 seed in the East and made the conference finals. (He improved to 39.5% in his second year and is a career 35.8 percent shooter from behind the arc.)
It was Boston's first trip past the first round of the playoffs in the post-Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett chapter of franchise history, and it established a new standard for a new era. The team drafted Tatum a year later and made it back to the conference finals, this time pushing LeBron James and the Cavaliers to Game 7 before bowing out.
What followed next was something that was a bit more organic than what we had come to see as the lone path to a championship in the NBA. Instead of building a superteam -- those Pierce-KG-Allen Celtics, the LeBron-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh Heat, Kevin Durant joining the dynasty-in-progress Warriors, the ill-fated combination of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn, etc. -- the Celtics went all in with their budding star duo.
They lost in the Finals to the Warriors (a great team making its last gasp) and then flopped in the conference finals a year later, losing the first three games to an eight-seeded Heat team before forcing Game 7 on a miracle buzzer beater and then getting blown out on the parquet in the final game of the series.
The struggle was real.
And though they did have to dip into superteam waters by acquiring Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday in the summer of 2023, the whole journey of Brown and Tatum made that parade down Boylston Street feel a bit special.
On the plus side, Celtics fans will always have that. On the downside, well,