AP Photo/Steven Senne
The Boston Celtics were two wins away from earning their first NBA championship since 2008, but trade rumors still persisted this offseason with Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic notably reporting that the C’s offered a package centered around Jaylen Brown to the Brooklyn Nets for Kevin Durant.
Trade rumors seemingly follow most big-name players at some point or another, and Celtics star Jayson Tatum is no exception.
Justin Quinn of Celtics Wire sat down with C’s star Jayson Tatum to discuss a number of topics, including trade rumors in general.
“How do you feel if you ever see your name in a trade rumor?” Quinn asked. “Is that something you think of as a compliment? Does it ever get annoying? How do you deal with that?”
Tatum responded as follows:
“That’s the world we live in, right? It always comes from an anonymous source. But it always makes ESPN or Twitter or whatever, and everybody sees it. So you never know what is true and what’s not true, but it gets people to talk about it, and I guess that’s the idea. They got what they wanted out of the deal, for people to talk about it and make speculations. If you pay attention to everything you see on Twitter or TV, you drive yourself crazy. I think that’s just something that you have to learn just to keep your own sanity and your own peace.
“They will literally say anything, and some of it might be true, and there are other things that just couldn’t be further from the truth. But, the average fan at home doesn’t know the difference, and they just might believe whatever they see. And it doesn’t help that people on the sports talk shows are talking about it every day and we don’t know who said it, so just control what you can control. That’s what I always live by.”
It was an enlightening response on trade rumors from a three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA player’s perspective.
It’s something he’s used to. A quick look at HoopsHype shows a litany of rumors and trade talk Tatum has been involved in during past years.
Ultimately, those are things Tatum personally shouldn’t have to worry about anytime soon after leading the C’s to the Eastern Conference title. He’s also currently signed through 2025, with a player option for 2025-26.
His co-star in Brown may have found himself in KD talks, although nothing ever materialized. However, longtime Boston and ESPN NBA columnist Jackie MacMullan said on NBC Sports Boston’s Early Edition (h/t Darren Hartwell of NBC Sports Boston) that the team isn’t “actively trying to trade Jaylen Brown.”
“The Celtics aren’t actively trying to trade Jaylen Brown. One of the generational players, Kevin Durant, is available. You’d be a fool not to investigate it. [President of basketball operations] Brad Stevens isn’t doing his job if he doesn’t investigate it.”
For now, Tatum and Brown are leading a Celtics team with championship prospects in 2022-23 with training camp one month away and the regular season starting on Oct. 19.
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