For the better part of 45 years, the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics’ rivalry has been rooted in pure animus. A 1983 preseason game was marked by three separate fights. A year later, the stately Julius Erving fought Larry Bird after an offensive foul—and because Bird, a renowned trash talker, wouldn’t keep his mouth shut.
The dynamic, intensified by two cities infamous for their distinct Northeastern hostility, didn’t need more sazón, but people will, at the very least, indulge their appetite for drama. And over the past six months, the Sixers-Celtics rivalry has gotten more dramatic—and messier—in a way few could have anticipated, making tonight’s Boston-Philadelphia game one of the most eagerly awaited regular season clashes between the two franchises.
Back in May, the Sixers came back from a 3-1 deficit and bounced the favored Celtics from the playoffs at TD Garden—the franchise’s first postseason series win over Boston since 1982.
After the loss, Jaylen Brown, who had a career season while Jayson Tatum rehabbed a ruptured Achilles, took to Twitch to complain about league-wide flopping—particularly from Joel Embiid—and how he’d been officiated during the series, insinuating that previous criticism of the referees had influenced his whistle.
Brown’s stream was mocked as a meltdown and he was fined $50,000 for calling out the refs.
Two months later, he and Embiid were teammates
Nearly 10 years to the day of Kevin Durant’s Fourth of July surprise, the Celtics shocked the basketball world by trading Brown to the Sixers, of all teams, for Paul George, two first-round picks, and two second-round picks.
A stunned Brown implied that he felt slighted by the trade. “I'm big on respect and actions speak louder than words,” he said in a statement released the following day.
The Sixers, who fired general manager Daryl Morey in May, had reached a ceiling: the second round of the playoffs. New general manager Mike Gansey made a splash by acquiring Brown, which raised expectations for the team—and that was before LeBron James relocated his cottage industry to Philadelphia.
The stakes were now raised: Old Millennial James didn’t change coasts purely for the sake of spending his 24th season with fellow Klutch Sports client-turned-little bro, Tyrese Maxey. He believed Philadelphia offered the best opportunity for him to win an elusive fifth ring. But the trade also added a new wrinkle to the Sixers-Celtics rivalry because of the relationship between Brown and Tatum, and the public’s fascination with it.
Jaylen Brown vs. Jayson Tatum is Perfect for Today’s Media Climate
We are inundated with noise. Whether it’s linear television, one of the numerous podcasts dressed up as a talk show, whichever social media platform, or the severely discounted written word, there’s an overabundance of conversations taking place—increasingly fewer of which are of value. It’s an ongoing cycle fueled, if not by the need to be first, than to garner the most eyeballs by dissecting everything
The fraught state of media means that everyone who’s now included under its umbrella is incentivized to comment on everything, except the things that could jeopardize personal and professional relationships. There’s more general commentary and less insightful discussion. Beyond people feeling the need to talk, they feel compelled to speak on other’s remarks. Some feel the need to speak on behalf of people and possibly organizations. Conversations about conversations have replaced the inciting event as the main attraction.
Within the last couple of weeks, as the first post-trade matchup between the Sixers and Celtics has drawn closer, the discourse about Brown and Tatum has intensified.
Both players have spoken about the summer’s events, with Tatum saying that ESPN reporter Shams Charania broke the news to him, then Brown replying with a cap emoji in the comments of a Bleacher Report Instagram video in which Tatum tells the story. Tatum would later insist that there was no beef, to which Brown, in the midst of shading Tatum, said there might be “a little lamb chops and some gravy.”
The Joe Budden Podcast, former Celtics coach and current Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka, and former Celtic and current Celtics TV analyst Brian Scalabrine, among many others, have all either been asked to weigh in or offered commentary on the matter. Scalabrine briefly became the main character after he claimed Brown requested a trade, then dialed back the allegation (which Brown dismissed as false) while still accusing Brown of playing the victim.
From media members to fans, there’s a hunger for more information, a potential escalation of the situation, and a desire to be part of the story if possible.
Call it beef (or don’t), call it lamb chops, or make the 100th joke about how Brown and Tatum were co-workers rather than friends—it’s clear there’s tension between them.
They’re two very different people: Tatum is a good ole Duke boy who, like Grant Hill before him, has benefited from his placid disposition. The outspoken Brown cites French philosopher Michel Foucault and once said he wanted to build a Black Wall Street in Boston with his $304 million supermax extension. Tatum speaks in company man bromides; Brown speaks unfiltered on streams.
Brown and Tatum played together for nine years, went to the NBA Finals twice, and won once. For whatever success they didn’t achieve as a duo, the longevity of their pairing could prove rare moving forward given the restrictions of the league’s second apron.
What also appears clear is that both couldn’t be the franchise’s favorite son.
Brown struggled early during his career and had to work his way up to becoming an All-Star caliber player; Tatum was showered with praise from the moment he dunked on James as a rookie during the 2018 playoffs. Brown won Finals MVP in 2024 and still wound up on the wrong side of the Celtics’ decision to give him a then-record contract the previous summer. Two weeks after the 2024 Finals, the team signed Tatum to the richest contract in NBA history.
For Brown, it must sting to lead a team to the second seed, almost completely in Tatum’s absence, and have the team seemingly choose the player coming off an Achilles injury over him.
It’s also understandable that Tatum feels a way.
He’s surely seen and heard the remarks about Brown claiming the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP awards en route to the franchise’s 18th title. He’s allowed to feel like the Celtics are his team, as they were destined to be. But if they want to speak or act on the tension, especially within the context of this rivalry, it’s all or nothing. You can’t half-ass it when it comes to Sixers-Celtics. Either commit or spare us completely, though the discourse machine will feast on the scraps regardless.
Tatum is correct: This ain’t Shaq and Kobe.
It’s not even Durant and Russell Westbrook, a conflict which ended quicker than some might recall.
But as with those situations, this first game pitting Brown and Tatum against one another is intriguing because of the tabloid lover in us all.
Members of the modern media climate and fans on the highest horses are still slaves to a rancid ecosystem, and the NBA certainly hopes that’s enough to reel viewers in.
The first Shaq versus Kobe meeting—which is how it was positioned—was the most-watched NBA game in over six years.
The first Durant versus Westbrook matchup was a blowout, but it was still an event.
NBC wants this game to be one, too. And even if it doesn’t live up to the history, you can count on there being plenty of discussion about every Brown and Tatum interaction in the aftermath.
