Jaylen Brown has broken his silence on the surprising trade that sends him to a longtime rival. During his hour-long Twitch livestream, the 29-year-old admitted to having mixed feelings about getting shipped to the Philadelphia 76ers. While expressing sincerity about working with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, Brown revealed that overcoming a decade of intense, deeply rooted competitive animosity toward the City of Brotherly Love is the biggest challenge.

“I look forward to getting in the gym. I look forward to the whole process,” Brown said on the livestream. “So the hard part is like, for the last 10 years, I’ve like been programmed to hate Philadelphia. Like, from the history of the rivalry, to just the playoff battles, all of the above. The Process [Joel Embiid], like I’ve been programmed to be like, man, ‘f— The Process.’ So it’s like funny now, I gotta like reverse engineer.”

This fierce rivalry reached a peak during the 2026 postseason. Philadelphia fans would chant “We want Boston” at Sixers games to ensure they faced the Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum duo in the playoffs.

When that series finally arrived, Boston fans increased the pressure and even got shushed by Embiid every time he made a shot. The Sixers ultimately came back from a 1-3 deficit to eliminate Boston in a grueling first-round playoff series just weeks earlier. It was pure revenge for Philly after losing to Boston in the 2023 conference semifinals. To go from fighting that culture and yelling in Embiid’s face to now elevating it will be an emotional rollercoaster for JB.

The monumental deal sent former 76ers forward Paul George, along with two first-round draft picks (2028 and 2031) and two second-round picks (2028 and 2030), back to Boston. The trade abruptly ended Brown’s highly decorated 10-season run with the Celtics.

But is there any possible explanation for this trade?

In that same livestream, Brown was sure that there was “more” to this trade than any on-court issue, something that he wasn’t aware of, nor made aware of at any point.

“I think there was a bit of a lack of respect,” Brown added. “It was fine at one point, and then out of nowhere things just kind of went left. I think Brad [Stevens] is probably getting a lot of the criticism. I wasn’t thrilled with the way he facilitated some of the conversations. I definitely think there’s more to it.

“I just wish that the ‘more to it’ could have been explained to me. If ‘the more to it’ was explained, I think I would have understood. I thought I earned enough respect to get that explanation, but hey, obviously I was wrong.”

Multiple insiders have confirmed that the Celtics were among the interested parties for Giannis Antetokounmpo. And Brown was offered as part of the deal. However, a failed pursuit by Boston’s front office had left Brown feeling heavily underappreciated by team management before they packaged him to the Sixers. Fans noticed those feelings in Brown’s official statement, where he intentionally skipped mentioning the team while thanking the city and fans.

“I’m still processing how this all went down. I’m excited and disappointed at the same time,” Brown wrote on his X post.

While that statement was a subtle jab at the Celtics and an appreciation of the love from the fanbase, his livestream was about promising to earn the respect of the Sixers fanbase.

“It’s bittersweet, I think Philadelphia has a history of being a strong city, of being a tough-nosed city. So I’m looking forward to that because I don’t want no special treatment. I don’t want no handouts. I don’t need no extra privilege. Not to say y’all were going to give me that anyway, but I plan on earning my respect one day at a time by putting in the work, you know?”

As the fanbases on both sides were finally starting to accept the trade, ESPN insider Shams Charania revealed the Celtics’ actual demand.

“The Celtics had such a high bar on a deal,” Charania reported on SportsCenter. “They were thinking if you’re gonna trade us Paul George, we need four firsts, five firsts. We need a player like a VJ Edgecombe. That was the bar that was set early. There were other teams around the league that might have stopped conversations or moved on to do other deals, but the Sixers stayed with it.”

Nobody actually knows what made Boston accept the offer that we eventually saw on our screens. However, the most commonly held belief appears that there was a significant gap between Brown’s perceived value internally and the actual value other teams believed he had…

A league source told The Athletic that the Houston Rockets (Ime Udoka, who has a history with the player) did not pursue him. The Portland Trail Blazers, who were rumored to be interested, took a few steps back after their analytics reportedly viewed him as a “negative” player.

That’s a major reason Boston fans, especially, eagerly await Stevens’ next press conference.

Philly, for its part, is welcoming its former rival with open arms. Even Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro took a shot at the Celtics while figuratively rolling the red carpet for Brown.

“Welcome to Philly, JB! Sixers get way better and, as a bonus, the Celtics got worse!” Shapiro immediately reacted on X.

The 76ers will assume the remaining years of Jaylen Brown’s five-year supermax extension, signed in 2023, which has a cap hit of about $57.7 million in 2026-27. Philadelphia has acquired a prime-age, All-NBA-level star who averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists last season, while sending injured-limited Paul George and draft picks to Boston.

The 76ers will hope the emotions from the trade motivate him to make them immediate championship contenders.