Ever since free agency kicked off on June 30, the NBA has not stopped delivering big news. Right now, the biggest headline everyone is talking about is the Jaylen Brown trade and how it has completely reshaped the Boston Celtics’ roster.
Now, in the middle of all this, one analyst has come out with a pretty pointed comment about Brown himself.
NBA Analyst Rips Jaylen Brown’s Personality
Citing NBA sources, radio show host Colin Cowherd said that Brown thinks he’s the smartest person in every room.
“I had two NBA sources… two people in the league, one an executive, one a scout, say that Jaylen Brown has — it’s a disease. He suddenly thinks he’s the smartest guy in every room he’s in… You make a lot of money, suddenly you’re absolutely sure, you don’t wanna listen to your bosses, you don’t wanna listen to consultants, you don’t wanna listen to teammates,” Cowherd said.
The trade came as a shock on July 1. The Celtics sent Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Paul George, two first-round picks, and two second-round picks. While everyone was left wondering what led to this move, ESPN’s Shams Charania gave a hint on “Get Up.”
He stated that the Celtics may have started questioning whether Brown and Jayson Tatum could keep fitting together going forward.
“The biggest thing that I look at is this, it’s very simple, even talking to people in Boston, winning cures everything,” Charania said. “The last two years, they simply did not get far enough to justify having two supermax contract players moving forward that they already had questions about the fit on a personal level and also eventually on the court, where they just did not have the levels of success that they wanted to have.”
The last two seasons were rough for Boston. In 2024-25, the Celtics went 61-21, but they got knocked out in the second round by the New York Knicks in six games. Tatum ruptured his right Achilles tendon in Game 4, which kept him out for most of the 2025-26 season.
This past season, the Celtics finished 56-26 and made it back to the playoffs. Brown carried a huge chunk of the load. He averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game. Even so, they couldn’t get past the first round as they were defeated by the 76ers. Outside of the 2024 championship, things just haven’t clicked the way Boston had hoped.
Interestingly, Charania also reported that Brown never actually requested a trade out of Boston.
“They continued to have trade talks, and by today they were actively shopping , full-blown shopping, Jaylen Brown around the league, trying to get teams’ best offers in,” Charania said. “My understanding is that Jaylen Brown, throughout all this, never requested a trade. He never asked out of Boston. This was all the Celtics.”
Brown already knew the Celtics were willing to package him in a deal to bring in Giannis Antetokounmpo before the Greek Freak ended up with Miami instead. So if Brown had stuck around in Boston after that, things could have gotten pretty awkward, knowing the front office was trying to trade him.
Many Celtics fans are not happy about this trade. Some are even comparing it to the Luka Dončić trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, saying PG, at this stage of his career, feels more like a podcaster than a player who can help Boston win.
Whether the trade pays off for either side is still unknown. Philly gains a top scorer in Brown, while Boston gets draft capital to reshape and build around Tatum.
