Jaylen Brown shares interesting comments about his Celtics future originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Jaylen Brown is a "pillar" of the Boston Celtics' organization. He and Jayson Tatum are both under contract through at least 2024, and if Brown makes an All-NBA team this year, he'll be eligible for a supermax extension that would keep him with the C's for at least five more years.
And yet ... Brown remains wary of the business that is the NBA.
In an interview with The Ringer's Logan Murdock, Brown was asked if he wants to stay in Boston long-term. Brown's response:
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"I don’t know. As long as I’m needed. It’s not up to me. We’ll see how they feel about me over time and I feel about them over time. Hopefully, whatever it is, it makes sense. But I will stay where I’m wanted. I will stay where I’m needed and treated correct."
That's not exactly a ringing endorsement of the Celtics. But Brown's quote comes with context: The 26-year-old has been involved in multiple trade rumors during his Boston tenure, including last offseason and earlier this season when there was speculation that the C's would deal Brown to the Brooklyn Nets in return for Kevin Durant.
When photos surfaced over the summer of Tatum and Durant working out together, Brown actually had a three-way call with Tatum and Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens to voice his puzzlement.
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"[KD] and JT are friends. They was working out together and whatnot," Brown told Murdock. "So, I wasn’t sure what the energy was. I wasn’t sure what the direction of the organization was."
Stevens assured Brown he wasn't being traded, but when Brown's name resurfaced in Durant rumors again this January, it left him on edge.
"It’s hard coming into teams and organizations and being warm," Brown said. "They operate on different principles, I think. This is an organization. They look at it as a business, where they’ll tell you one thing, and then behind closed doors, they’ll say another, and they’ll trade you off.
" ... Like, where I’m from in the South, if you don’t come through the front door, it’s considered disrespectful. I feel like a lot of times, when you deal in these corporate spaces, everybody wants to come through the back door or come through an angle."
Brown's quotes are concerning on the surface, as he offered no assurances that he'd re-sign with the Celtics on his next contract. But it sounds like Brown understands that nothing is guaranteed in the NBA, and that trades can happen at any moment -- even involving beloved star players such as Isaiah Thomas, who was dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers after a historic 2016-17 campaign that was Brown's rookie season.
If the Celtics continue to have success and offer Brown a supermax contract -- in other words, if they treat him "correct" -- it's hard to see Brown turning that down to play elsewhere. Brown appears to be a realist, though, and won't follow in Kyrie Irving's footsteps of making promises he can't keep.
