With Jayson Tatum standing tall as one of the league’s best players, Brown was a No. 2 option being paid like a No. 1 superstar.
Factor in Brown’s huge contract — he signed a five-year, $286million deal that featured an average annual salary of $57m – and his name was constantly in trade rumors.
A small sampling of past headlines and tweets shows how passionate some Celtics and NBA fans were about Boston moving on from the No. 3 overall pick of the 2016 draft.
“Ranking star guards the Celtics could trade Jaylen Brown for this offseason” was floated in 2023.
“The case for trading Jaylen Brown” was written in the same year.
“The Celtics Can’t Run It Back After This” was featured by The Ringer a year ago.
X, formerly known as Twitter, was an even tougher place for Brown, who was named the Larry Bird Eastern Conference finals MVP after the Celtics swept the Indiana Pacers in four games and became the first team to advance to the NBA Finals.
“SMH,” Brown tweeted in July 2022, when trade rumors were surrounding him.
