Boston Celtics
Pierce also said he was “disappointed, but not surprised” by Boston’s decision to trade Brown.
Paul Pierce was also traded away from the Celtics to another team in the division in 2013. Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
While Boston Celtics fans reel from the stunning trade that sent Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers earlier this week, legend Paul Pierce offered some words of encouragement to the player.
Pierce, who was also dealt from the Celtics to a team in the same division (the Brooklyn Nets) back in 2013, said he understands the situation Brown is in. Pierce hopes Brown will use his feelings about the trade to better his career.
“Although I think he feels like he doesn’t get the respect that he deserves maybe from the organization, but Jaylen has to understand this is what your career has been built on: not being respected,” Pierce said on the “No Fouls Given” show. “You didn’t make the Olympic team. You’re not in the top five All-NBA, you know what I’m saying? This is what keeps you hungry, Jaylen.
“You have to come to the fact that — and I came to this realization as a Boston Celtic also — ‘Listen, I know I’m not respected like I feel like I should,’ but sometimes that’s what keeps you hungry, and sometimes those are the things that motivate you to keep you and drive you to become the player that you are today, which is a future Hall of Famer.”
Brown said he indeed felt disrespected when he was left off the 2024 USA men’s basketball Olympic team. Teammate Derrick White was chosen as a replacement for Kawhi Leonard over Brown, which Brown said he planned to use as fuel to become an even better player coming off the Celtics’ 2024 NBA Finals victory.
He has also never earned All-NBA first-team honors. He said it didn’t surprise him when he was named to the All-NBA second-team this year.
Following being traded to the Sixers earlier this week, Brown said Boston showed a “lack of respect” after the organization decided to part ways.
“I think Brad [Stevens] is getting a lot of the criticism. I wasn’t thrilled with the way he facilitated some of the conversations,” Brown said on a Twitch livestream the day after the trade news broke.
Like all of the other times when Brown has felt disrespected, he seemingly feels no different after landing with a new team.
Pierce offered his analysis and feelings about the trade, and said he was “disappointed, but not surprised” that the situation ended the way it did.
“I’m a little disappointed, but I’m not surprised because the writing was on the wall,” he said. “This has been speculation for some months now. It wasn’t like the Luka [Doncic] trade where it was like, shocking.
“(The Brown trade) was like, ‘All right, it’s going to happen.’ Like we almost knew it. It was like, when though? I don’t know what happened behind the scenes. … It’s like if you have a family member who’s dying and it’s like, when they die, you saw it coming. It sucks, but you know. When it happens out of the blue, it’s different.”
Pierce, like many others, wasn’t a fan of the decision to deal Brown, but he’s optimistic about Boston’s future with Paul George.
“I think, at the end of the day, it was a combination of some things that maybe turned off the franchise that was said, a combination of money-driven obligations in the future,” Pierce said. “This is what we’ve come to. It is what it is.
“But in the meantime, when you look at the Celtics’ roster, it’s still a roster that you look at and say, ‘Hey, they could still come out the East with this roster. It’s unfortunate because like I said, he poured his soul into the city. He was a Finals MVP, a champion. … Things happen for a reason.”
Kaley Brown
Kaley Brown is a sports producer for Boston.com, where she covers the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox.
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