Scal Said Jaylen Demanded a Trade. Then 'Technically' He Didn't. Now Brown Says He Never Did

Jaylen Brown is in Philadelphia now, and Boston is still arguing about how he got there.

On his SiriusXM show The Starting Lineup this week, NBC Sports Boston analyst Brian Scalabrine said: "My understanding of this thing is that he demanded to be traded. Not through the media, but to the organization." He went further: "My understanding is that Jaylen Brown went to the organization and had a list of demands, and it was like, 'You either do this, or you trade me.' And he was rooting to get traded to Milwaukee, including calling some other teammates about, 'Hey, man, what do you think of Milwaukee? We should go there.'" That's all from NBC Sports Boston's own write-up.

By Monday night, before Celtics-Bulls at TD Garden, Scal had trimmed it. "Technically, [Brown] didn't demand to be traded," he said on Celtics Pregame Live. "I just summed it all up. I summed up the entire word salad and kept it simple, but I think that's what kind of got me in trouble there." He added: "I have no idea [what the demand was]. I don't know what the ultimatum was or the demands or whatever it was." He floated that one of them "might have been, 'Give me the $140 million extension,'" and said, "I haven't gotten to the bottom of all that."

Brown's answer, as quoted by HoopsHype and ESPN: "I never demanded a trade, never made a list of ultimatums." He said he had no interest in letting false allegations follow him to Philadelphia and would focus on the Sixers.

Brown's version has been consistent with what he said right after the trade. On his Twitch stream, the 2024 Finals MVP vented about the "amount of respect" shown in the process, said he "wasn't thrilled" with how Brad Stevens "facilitated some of the conversations," and said there's "no loyalty in the NBA."

The money is the real backdrop. If Brown had stayed, Boston would have faced a two-year extension worth around $140 million, with Jayson Tatum still owed $190 million. Stevens said at the time: "The path looked a little bit more challenging, with 70 percent of our cap and such a high percent of our usage tied into two players."

Dez's take: You don't get to say "demanded a trade" on the radio and then "technically no" on TV and call it the same story. Those are two different stories. Scal admitted he doesn't know what the demands were, which is the whole thing. My read, and it's only my read: the Celtics made a cap decision and everybody's been backfilling motives since. The tape on Nov. 10 in Philly is going to be loud.

What we still don't know: what, if anything, Brown asked the front office for, and whether the Celtics will ever say.