Brad Stevens did the best he could in 45-minute Q&A. Was it enough?

BOSTON — Brad Stevens has taken countless press conferences, for many years on an almost-nightly basis as a head coach, and more recently, as the Celtics’ President of Basketball Operations.

Still, sitting at the Auerbach Center podium late Monday afternoon, he was faced with perhaps his most difficult press conference yet.

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The stunning trade that made Jaylen Brown a Philadelphia 76er was not even official for three hours when Stevens took the podium alongside team owner Bill Chisholm, in order to answer 45 minutes of grueling questions from the local Boston press corps.

Was this a cost-cutting move?
Did swapping in Paul George for Jaylen Brown actually make this team better?
How do you explain this to the angry fans?
What do you say to a disrespected Jaylen?

From the get-go, Stevens looked and sounded like a man who, understandably, was balancing several competing and sensitive objectives.

He had an obvious desire — perhaps even a mandate — to be complimentary to Brown, a franchise legend, an all-time great who helped deliver Banner 18 to the Celtics a mere two summers ago.

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“When Jaylen came here as a 19-year-old, we knew that he had a lot of talent and a lot of ability to impact people in a lot of different ways,” Stevens said in his opening statement. “And he certainly did that by inspiring people with his play, but I think maybe more so — and the thing that certainly always impressed me even more — was taking on the responsibility of being a great Boston athlete in the community. He talked all the time about his admiration for Bill Russell, and all that he meant in the community, and Jaylen has done an amazing job.”

He had a responsibility to empathize with the outraged Celtics fans who have been trying to make sense of a shocking deal that sent a beloved, homegrown star to a division rival for a far less impressive return than most expected.

“I’ve lost sleep over the ‘fan’ part of this,” Stevens said. “I get it. Like, there’s a bunch of 7 jerseys around. I’m pretty sure I bought a couple, so I get it.”

And, he tried his very best to be truthful and shine light on just some of the…

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Publish date : 2026-07-06 23:43:00

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