NBA rumors: Jaylen Brown admits he and Marcus Smart ‘butted heads’

Jaylen Brown reflects on the upgraded state of the Boston Celtics, addressing where the team stands with no Marcus Smart.

It’s been an exciting month for Jaylen Brown. Most recently, he signed the richest contract in NBA history. Additionally, he officially became the longest-tenured Celtic. A title that previously belonged to Marcus Smart.

This offseason, the Celtics brought in Kristaps Porzingis from Washington and sent Smart to Memphis, which introduced a major change to the Celtics’ lineup for the upcoming season.

Celtics: Jaylen Brown discusses his relationship with Smart

Brown was honest about the changes in personnel. Per Brian Robb of MassLive, “Definitely a lot of big changes,” Brown said, “Change is not always a bad thing. My brother and my teammate and one of my best friends is not on the team anymore. Everybody knows it. I learned so much from Marcus.”

Although Brown calls Smart his best friend, their relationship wasn’t perfect. While reflecting on the Celtics’ offseason changes, Brown described his relationship with Smart candidly, commenting:

"“Marcus has been somebody that’s, like, we butted heads at times, we fought, we did it all, we put each other in headlocks, etc. The journey won’t feel the same without him to be honest. But it’s a part of life, it’s a part of what you do going forward and everything he’s instilled into this organization, everything he’s instilled into this community is still going to be with us, still carried with us.”"

Brown has spent all seven of his seasons playing with Smart. Jaylen Brown clearly has a lot of respect for Smart’s game, later on saying, “With Marcus gone, we don’t want our defensive identity to go out the door as well, so we have to really emphasize that at the start of training camp.”

Clearly, there’s mutual respect between the two former teammates. It’ll be exciting to see JB and Marcus Smart re-unite and face off in the regular season.