Why Jaylen Brown’s infamous ‘favorite season’ quote could bode well for the Sixers

In May, Jaylen Brown was down bad. The Sixers had just pulled off their first-ever 3-1 series comeback in franchise history to beat Brown’s Celtics in the playoffs for the first time in more than 40 years. That also marked the Celtics’ first blown 3-1 lead in franchise history. (We truly hate to see it.)

While the season ended in clear disappointment, Brown raised eyebrows across the NBA when he said it was “my favorite year of my basketball career” on his Twitch stream afterward. Brown’s co-star, Jayson Tatum, missed most of the season while recovering from a torn Achilles, so that quote naturally set off a firestorm in the national media.

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Does Brown care more about his production than he does about winning? Did he want his own team? Was it finally time to break up the Jays? (As it turns out, we got a clear answer to that last question two months later.)

The national media being what it is these days, the reaction was completely devoid of the context surrounding that quote. That context is what should give the Sixers hope about their outlook heading into the 2026-27 season.

What Brown actually meant

That Twitch stream wasn’t the first time that Brown said the 2025-26 campaign was his favorite season.

“I think this has been my favorite season so far, being able to get an opportunity to lead a group,” he told reporters in late December. “A group of guys who … Some of us have some championship experience, but we have five or six new guys who haven’t really played NBA basketball. And now, we look like one of the better teams in the league. And that’s just credit to our coaching staff and credit to our leadership that we’ve been able to get those guys comfortable. And we’re playing some good basketball right now, so it means everything.”

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Ever since they drafted Brown in 2016, the Celtics have made six appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals, earned two NBA Finals berths and won a championship in 2023-24. They were in the inner circle of title contenders for most of Brown’s NBA career. But after Tatum tore his Achilles in the second round of the playoffs in 2024-25, expectations were far…

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Publish date : 2026-09-07 14:00:00

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