For years, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have stood as one of the NBA’s most successful duos, even as rumors of a rift refused to disappear. Most dismissed the speculation as noise. But now, Tatum’s latest comments have reignited the debate, leaving fans questioning everything they believed. And one NBA legend has now weighed in with a perspective.

On 97.1 The Fan, Derek Fisher said, “To me, this sounds like he’s trying to help young people understand about leadership and about not being the smartest person in the room.” He added, “It’s one of the most intelligent ways, even from a business perspective or as an athlete. A lot of times you end up in rooms that are cool and sexy, and there’s a vibe, but you might be one of the smartest people in the room.”

Fisher went on, “When in reality, you’re in the wrong room, and you want to be in rooms with people that are way smarter than you, that have accomplished more than you, that think on a higher frequency than you do so that you can learn and grow and become a better version of yourself.”

The 5-time NBA champ’s logic is simple: instead of talking about leadership and smartness in front of a hall full of children, people in general should surround themself with smarter, more accomplished people, which creates opportunities to learn, improve, and become one’s best version.

Derek Fisher further argued that without the long-standing speculation surrounding Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum‘s relationship, nobody would naturally connect Tatum’s remarks to his Celtics teammate.

“That’s just me, really, because why does he need to be cryptic about who said? Why is he talking about Jaylen Brown? What part of that says he’s talking about Jaylen? I don’t know,” he added.

Did Jayson Tatum subtly take a dig at Jaylen Brown?

During the ongoing tension between Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics, many allegedly remarked that the 29-year-old now-76ers star often acted “like he is the smartest in the room.” Now, recently, Jayson Tatum spoke to a group of children at one of his basketball camps.

“Being a leader doesn’t mean you know it all, right? I don’t know it all. I’ll be the first person to say that. Being a leader is being comfortable with raising your hand like, I don’t know,” he said. “Can you explain that to me? I don’t know X, Y, and Z. I want to learn. Being around somebody that feels like they know it all, I don’t want to be around that person. I don’t want to be the smartest person in the room. I want to learn from somebody else.”

Keeping this in mind, Derek Fisher also added more to his opinion. “I’ll freely admit, when I saw this quote, and I saw the actual video of him talking about it, that’s the only thing I saw. But that’s because we’ve been conditioned to believe that they have that type of beef.”

Rumors, allegations, and speculation are all a part of the NBA life. Therefore, it is not surprising that anything Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown say now might feel like a subtle or hard dig at each other.