NBA Notebook: Tatum vs. Brown, basketball is back, and Knicks phishing drama

The drama is pretty unavoidable if you have an account that exists anywhere on social media. Jayson Tatum vs. Jaylen Brown -- a battle some say has been brewing for years -- has begun to boil over.

During a recent interview, Tatum claimed to have found out about the Brown trade with everyone else. He said he was shocked. How could the Celtics trade Brown "down the street" to the Philadelphia 76ers?

Well, as soon as the clip of that interview went public, Brown saw it. And he commented under one of the videos: A hat emoji. Cap. He called cap.

Obviously, that comment went even more viral than the video of Tatum. Brown is calling Tatum a liar, and camps of Celtics fans have been formed. They've drawn lines in the sand.

There is also a post claiming that Brown liked a tweet that said the following: "Jaylen brown really always wanted that dude to win and it was never truly reciprocated." Not only that, but Brown was the first (and at the time, only) person to like the tweet.

Screenshots can be edited. And since likes are no longer public on Twitter, there's no way to tell if Brown actually liked the tweet. But it would make sense.

Clearly, Brown isn't happy with the narratives being spread. He made it clear as day that he wasn't thrilled with the way the trade went down. He didn't want to leave Boston.

Now, he's insinuating that Tatum did, in fact, know about the trade. Or at least, he didn't find out when the general public found out. He knew something.

At the post-trade press conference, Brad Stevens said that he did not talk to Tatum about the trade. That he doesn't involve players in decisions like that. But again, the cap emoji says otherwise.

The truth is impossible to know for sure. Because there is no way to know exactly what happened, no matter who says what. Anything could be possible.

Maybe Tatum knew before everyone else but didn't have time to do anything about it. Maybe Tatum did know about the trade and didn't say anything. Maybe Brown is just wrong.  Maybe he tried to prevent it, but the front office didn't listen. Maybe Tatum encouraged the trade.

Anything along the spectrum from 'Tatum is lying' to 'Brown is lying' could be true. My opinion? It would feel irresponsible for the front office not to give Tatum at least some heads-up about the trade before it happened. And if they did, then maybe Brown did find out.

Everything is over and done with. Barring a Brown expose and a response from Tatum and the Celtics organization, the truth will stay sealed for now. In the meantime, this all makes the Celtics' game against the Sixers on November 10 -- their first meeting of the season (in Philadelphia) -- all the more interesting.

After the Celtics' 107-104 win over the New York Knicks on Friday night, Tatum spoke extensively about the drama with Brown. The hat emoji comment. The supposed beef.

His responses were long, but a worthwhile read. First, he was asked directly about the cap comment:

"I mean, yeah. I mean, for me, I understand we're in the entertainment business," Tatum said. "Me personally, I'm not much of an off-the-court entertainer type of guy. And for me, it's like, I don't have any animosity or beef or ill will towards him, and I, I think the frustrating part is, since he's not with the Celtics anymore, the narrative or the conversations haven't been enough about what we accomplished, all the games we won, winning the championship, how we've grown together. And it's turned into this drama type of thing. And it's like, I'm not like, it's not really like -- Like, I got two kids, you know what I'm saying? 

"Like, I reached out to him the day he got traded. I called him. I texted him. And I understand people process things differently. So for me, at this point in our lives, we're too old to be having our relationship discussed, X, Y, Z, on the internet. There's a conversation to be had. We can definitely have that conversation. I welcome that, right? I've always wanted the best for him and wished the best for him. I've always publicly said those things. So, and I've seen all these things about like, 'Get your popcorn ready when they play.' Like, it's not a f***ing boxing match. We play basketball. I don't, like I said, again, there's no animosity. 

"There's no beef. And I just hate the way that the conversation, the narrative around it. There's not enough communication, and I think a conversation would solve or put out a lot of fires. And again, right? People process and handle things at their own time, and whenever that happens, it will happen."

A conversation. Tatum would welcome a conversation. So, it sounds like he and Brown haven't spoken since the deal.

But what would that conversation look like? Do they just need to sit in a room and hash things out? What is there to hash out?

"I don't want to put any restrictions, or what type of conversation -- I'm not saying it's going to be a bad conversation," Tatum said. "I just think, especially in sports and in the NBA, I think sometimes there's not enough communication. And not to blame y'all, but sometimes, media or outside can just continue to push or speculate. Rightfully so, that's y'all job. And like I said, he just turned 30. I'm 28. I got two kids. Just as adults, just a conversation. I'm not saying it's gonna be a bad one or anything like that. It's just communication and a conversation usually you just get the right, wrong, you understand the other side. And I think that's not done enough, especially in our business."

Clearly, Tatum doesn't see the