Jaylen Brown is getting another fresh start, and this one comes with a hope he knows well by now: that the ending looks a whole lot better than the last two.
Brown was dealt to Philadelphia in a blockbuster trade on Tuesday, with Paul George and four draft picks - first-rounders in 2028 and 2031 and second-rounders in 2028 and 230 - heading back to Boston. For Brown, it’s the latest reset after exits that didn’t exactly go the way he’d have drawn them up.
His final game in a Celtics uniform came in a 109-100 Game 7 loss to the 76ers. Boston had built a 3-1 lead in that series before the collapse, and Brown did everything he could to keep it alive, finishing with 33 points. But when the Celtics trimmed the gap to one late, he went 0-for-4 over the final five minutes.
The ending at Cal was even rougher.
In the 2016 NCAA tournament, the No. 4-seeded Golden Bears met 11th-seeded Hawaii in Spokane, Washington, and they were shorthanded without starters Jabari Bird and Tyrone Wallace. Cal needed Brown, then a freshman and the team’s most explosive weapon, after he had been averaging 15.0 points and had already scored 20 or more six times.
Instead, he turned in the worst game of his one season there. Brown finished with a season-low four points on 1-for-6 shooting, missed both of his three-point attempts, grabbed two rebounds and piled up a season-high seven turnovers. He fouled out after 17 minutes, and Cal fell 77-66.
That loss has lingered. Cal has not played an NCAA tournament game since.
Brown left Berkeley after that lone season and became the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft. He went on to build a résumé that included five All-Star selections and the NBA Finals MVP award in 2024.
Even so, Boston had been looking to move him since the NBA draft, and the relationship between Brown and the Celtics had clearly frayed.
Now he heads to Philadelphia, where the pressure comes built in and the fan base has never been shy about letting stars hear it.
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Hezekiah Masses Reinforced What Cal Fans Already Believe About DBs
Hezekiah Masses arrived at Cal in 2025 as a transfer from Florida International with one year of eligibility left, stepping into a cornerback opening and immediately giving the secondary the kind of proven playmaker it needed. He wasted little time backing up the move, piling up the nations best total in passes defended and drawing All-ACC first-team recognition along with second-team All-America honors from Walter Camp, The Associated Press and the AFCA.
For Cal fans who already believe the program knows how to develop defensive backs, Masses fit right into the line of recent success. His strong run in Berkeley ended with an NFL opportunity this spring, another reminder of how consistently the Bears keep sending secondary talent to the next level and why every new addition at corner comes with real expectations. [Read more 🡒]