Stephen A. Smith didn’t waste much time after Boston’s season-opening collapse before turning the spotlight on Jayson Tatum and the move that sent Jaylen Brown out the door.
On First Take, Smith praised Tatum first, then went straight at the decision to trade Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers after the Celtics blew a 22-point lead in a 121-103 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
“I don’t care anything about this game other than Jayson Tatum. Jayson Tatum is a superstar in this league.
He is class personified and one of the best people you could ever find. Boston loves him.
The Celtics love him. And whether they want to admit it or not, the die has been cast.
It clearly compromised your love for Jaylen Brown.”
Smith pointed to Brown’s production last season as the kind of proof he believes should have made a trade impossible.
“Jaylen Brown last year, without Jayson Tatum for the most part, led the Boston Celtics to 56 wins and a number two seed in the Eastern Conference. There is no way in hell that Jaylen Brown is gone, let alone traded within the division to the Philadelphia 76ers, if Jayson Tatum cares for that not to happen.”
He went even further, arguing that Tatum could have put a stop to it if he had pushed back.
“If Jayson Tatum stands up, ‘I don’t want to lose him. What do you mean you’re trading him?
He ain’t going nowhere. I want my man here,’ Jaylen Brown is still a Boston Celtic.
The fact that he is gone is because they wanted to make it clear it was Jayson Tatum’s team, and Jayson Tatum clearly did not mind.”
“Here is where Jayson Tatum may have miscalculated.”
That was Smith’s read on the situation, not proof that Tatum privately approved the move or had direct authority to block it.
Still, the optics are brutal for Boston after that opener. Tatum finished with 13 points, four rebounds, and 11 assists, but he shot 6 of 23 from the field and missed all seven of his three-point tries as the Celtics wilted down the stretch.
Paul George, the player Boston got back in the Jaylen Brown deal, was a bright spot in his Celtics debut. He scored 38 points and knocked down seven three-pointers, yet even that wasn’t enough to save Boston from the Pistons’ surge. Detroit owned the glass 49-39 and kept pounding the ball inside, while a 23-0 run flipped the game and left the Celtics chasing.
Brown, meanwhile, got his Philadelphia tenure started with a win. He posted 19 points, eight rebounds, and six assists on 7-of-14 shooting as the Sixers beat the defending champion Knicks 106-100.
It’s only one game, so nobody is going to settle the verdict on Boston’s choice just yet. George’s outing showed the Celtics still have firepower, but Smith’s criticism adds another layer of pressure on Tatum.
And with Brown now in Philadelphia, every big performance he puts together will keep dragging the Celtics back to the same question: why was this the split they chose?
In Other News...
Pistons Opener Hinted At A Change Fans Have Wanted For Years
The Pistons entered the 2026 offseason determined to modernize an offense that too often settled for too few threes, and their regular-season opener against the Celtics offered the clearest sign yet that the message may have landed. Detroit launched 40 three-pointers in a 121-113 win, a sharp jump from last seasons 30.8 per game, and the shot profile alone looked different enough to catch the eye even before the comeback from a 22-point hole.
Duncan Robinson, Javonte Green, Isaiah Joe and Kevin Huerter all factored into the spread-the-floor approach, giving Detroit the kind of perimeter volume fans have wanted to see for years. One game does not make a season, of course, but after spending the offseason talking about the need to improve from deep, the Pistons at least gave themselves a template worth watching closely as the schedule moves on. [Read more 🡒]
John Collins Already Has The Pistons Facing A Tough Defensive Question
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Detroit tried to work around it by shifting Collins to center, hoping the matchup would settle in, but the adjustment did not really solve the issue. Paul George found room to score against him, and the problem only looked more complicated when bigger opponents came into play, including Mitchell Robinson. For a Pistons group trying to piece together lineups early, Collins fit may end up being defined less by what he can add and more by how they hide what he gives up. [Read more 🡒]
Pistons Just Turned Bostons Big Debut Into A Celtics Problem
Bostons season opener quickly turned into a reminder that early NBA games can still say plenty about where a team is headed. The Celtics built a 22-point lead against Detroit, only to let it slip away in a loss that had Jayson Tatum finishing with 13 points on rough shooting while Paul George carried the offensive load with 38 points and also made his presence felt on the defensive end.
Social media did what it always does after a collapse like that, with fans split between frustration at the coaching and player execution and calls to remember how long the season is. From Detroits perspective, it was the kind of result that can travel well beyond one night, because handing Boston an opener like that immediately changes the tone around the Celtics and gives the Pistons an early jolt of attention. [Read more 🡒]