A lot of the chatter around Jaylen Brown’s move to the Philadelphia 76ers has centered on one question: was the Boston situation really as tense as some of the rumors suggested? For Sixers fans, the concern has been obvious, especially with the old comparisons to the Ben Simmons-Joel Embiid dynamic.
Grant Williams doesn’t sound worried.
Speaking on SiriusXM NBA Radio, the former Celtics forward pushed back on the idea that Brown and Jayson Tatum had a fractured relationship. “You can bring the best out of someone else beside you, and I think that’s what it was for those two," Williams said on SiriusXM NBA Radio.
"They had respect for one another, they enjoyed being around one another when they were on the court, as well as they didn’t have any disdain for one another off the floor. So that’s something I can just vividly say is that I don’t think those guys disliked each other at all.”
That matters because Williams wasn’t speaking from the outside. He was in Boston from 2019 to 2023 and saw the Brown-Tatum partnership over four seasons before he was moved to the Dallas Mavericks ahead of the 2023-2024 NBA season.
Of course, the anonymous reports around Brown’s time with the Celtics may not have come from nowhere. It’s possible the dynamic shifted after Williams was gone, especially since he missed Boston’s championship run and Brown’s solo season of dominance in 2025-2026.
Success changes how players are viewed, and it can change how they feel, too. Brown has reportedly felt slighted by the Celtics in recent years, and that frustration appears to have only grown after he was suddenly traded to the 76ers.
Still, Williams’ comments offer a different lens on the situation. They also take some of the edge off the idea that Brown might struggle to fit alongside players like Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, LeBron James, and VJ Edgecombe.
Maybe the concerns linger. Maybe they don’t.
But Brown has earned the chance to start fresh without being boxed in by rumors from Boston before he even gets going in Philadelphia.
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