Regardless of how it ended (or the fact that it even ended in the first place), the Jaylen Brown trade doesn't change his Boston Celtics legacy. And Brad Stevens may have just proved that.
During a recent interview with Avery Hill of the Boston Globe, the Celtics' general manager said that the team will "likely" retire Brown's jersey number down the line.
“I get a lot of emails and a lot of people that ask about wanting to be a GM,” Stevens said. “I’m like, ‘I wish you would’ve been around last summer when we basically had to trade Jrue Holiday.’ ... Or we go through this long, arduous process and ultimately decide to trade Jaylen, whose numbers will likely go up in the rafters in Boston. Not fun.”
Brown wasn't every Celtics' fan's favorite player, but there's still no denying the impact he made on the franchise. The Georgia native is a Celtics legend, and when the time is right, he absolutely deserves to have his jersey number hanging in the rafters.
Jaylen Brown is one of the all-time Celtics greats
He's not Bill Russell or Larry Bird. He's not John Havlicek or Bob Cousy. And he's not even Paul Pierce. But Brown still deserves to be in the same conversation as the other all-time Celtics legends.
These are Brown's current rankings in some of the biggest statistical categories in Celtics history (regular season): 15th in games played (674), seventh in steals (684), 10th in points (13,474), T-eighth in triple-doubles (six, Dave Cowens), eighth in points per game (20), third in three-pointers made (1,284).
And on top of that, Brown is a five-time All-Star, a two-time All-NBA selection, a one-time Eastern Conference Finals MVP, and a one-time NBA Finals MVP. He also finished sixth in MVP voting last season.
The Celtics don't win it all in 2024 without the California alum (it's fair to say Jayson Tatum deserved the finals MVP award more, but that doesn't change that they needed each other to get to that point). And had Boston kept series lead over the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals and won it all, Brown likely would have won the finals MVP award that year, too.
And all of that is just his on-court accomplishments. He has done so much for the city of Boston and the community (namely his charitable work through foundations and programs), and that only improves his legacy.
It's unfortunate that Brown won't spend his whole career with the Celtics, but nothing is going to change the impact he made during his 10 years with the franchise. He's done a lot for the organization and the city, and down the line, the Celtics need to pay that back by making sure his No. 7 jersey is retired.
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