Owner Bill Chisholm admitted the Celtics’ front office worked hard to persuade him that trading Jaylen Brown was the best path to winning.
“The fan in me,” Chisholm said Monday in a joint press conference with team president Brad Stevens. “It was really tough. I’m accountable for it. Brad’s accountable to me for it. They came to the conclusion, they convinced me, this was the best way to win. I got there.”
Chisholm denied the Celtics are taking a reputation hit by trading Brown, which he said would be “unacceptable,” even if most opinions on the deal that sent Brown to the division rival Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and draft picks haven’t painted Boston in a positive light.
“We have to be the best. We want to be the best place for players to play,” Chisholm said. “Whether perception becomes reality, we have to deal with that, but that’s not my take on how these things went down.”
Initial talks involved the Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat and others. Stevens said the Celtics spent a lot of time on trade offers and reviewed what alternatives might look like before trading Brown, a five-time All-Star, for George and multiple draft picks.
“This was all about basically trying to win. I think we have the best front office in the NBA,” Chisholm said. “That’s the mandate, was to win. We’ll spend whatever it takes to do that.”
Stevens admitted there is no immediate financial relief from the deal and it was a “hard decision,” admitting he understands why the trade wouldn’t be popular in “many circles.” Analytics guru Michael Zarren was part of the discussions.
“It was a really hard call. We understood that coming into it. That’s something you have to consider and weigh,” Stevens said. “You take in every angle and every ounce of information that you have and you put it all together. For me and Mike and his staff might get mad at me, (analytics) was a small piece of information for me. We did the deal because we got Paul George and we got draft assets.”
Brown said on his livestream reaction to the trade “things went left” after what he felt were good talks with the Celtics about the future.
“If he feels that way, I’m sorry about that. I really am,” Stevens said. “As I said, we had a lot of open discussions about here or elsewhere. He and, at least his agent, were well aware of even teams that had the most cursory of interest. That was well-communicated or at least communicated. I’m sorry that he would feel that way.”
Brown, 29, was fourth in the league in scoring in 2025-26 at 28.7 points per game. He finished sixth in NBA MVP voting last season, working most of the year as the primary offensive option while Jayson Tatum recovered from Achilles surgery.
Stevens clarified that even following the trade there are still no cost-cutting mandates coming from Chisholm, who was seated to his immediate left. He said the Celtics are still shopping for a player who could fill the mid-level exception of around $10 million.
George entered the NBA in 2010 with the Pacers and turned 36 in May. The nine-time All-Star averaged 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game last season but has played more than 56 games in a season only once — 74 in 2023-24 with the Clippers — since 2019.
–Field Level Media
