Heat team president Pat Riley once issued a press release telling then-Celtics executive Danny Ainge to “shut the f*** up and manage his own team,” so you get the sense there is extra satisfaction to Miami edging Boston in these Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes.
Not only have the Heat secured Antetokounmpo, forging a could-be contender (if Miami can flesh out a competitive roster around a two-time NBA MVP and Bam Adebayo), they have weakened an Eastern Conference rival, as there will be fallout from this in Boston.
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How could there not be? Boston offered Jaylen Brown, the league’s 2024 Finals MVP, plus two unprotected first-round draft picks for Antetokounmpo, per ESPN’s Shams Charania. This after Brown rallied the Celtics this past season in the absence of injured superstar Jayson Tatum, leading them to 56 wins and a No. 2 seed in the East playoffs.
Of course there will be hurt feelings on behalf of Brown. How could there not be? He has given the Celtics everything he could, entering a Hall of Fame resume since they drafted him third overall in 2016. Since season ticket-holders booed his selection at a draft-night celebration in TD Garden, he has only made five All-Star teams and six conference finals, winning MVP of the Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals en route to a title in 2024.
And what does he get in return? Well, Brown got shopped. Again.
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According to Charania, the Celtics also offered Brown to the Brooklyn Nets in a package for Kevin Durant in 2022. At the time, he had also just helped those Celtics to the NBA Finals, where they lost in six games to the Golden State Warriors. Who could blame him if he were ever to begin to wonder what he can possibly do for Boston to want to keep him?
The Celtics previously smoothed over their relationship with Brown with the help of a five-year, $285.4 million maximum contract extension in July 2023. Might they do the same this summer, when he is due a two-year, $142 million extension through 2030-31?
Is it wise, though, to allocate 35% of the salary cap to Brown when Tatum is owed the same? The Celtics answered that in the negative when they offered Brown for Giannis, preferring instead to pair Tatum with Antetokounmpo in the team’s pursuit of Banner 19.
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Now they must face the fallout. What if they still don’t want to pay Brown, who remains under contract for the next three seasons? Or what if Brown, hurt by yet another round of trade rumors, no longer wants to sign an extension in Boston? The Celtics might, then, have to grapple with the idea of still trading Brown, this time for less talent than Giannis.
And maybe that is for the best. Brown, a member of the All-NBA Second Team this past season, still holds tremendous value, and maybe it is wise to swap him for a collection of assets that better balances the roster around Tatum. Some combination of Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones and Yves Missi from the New Orleans Pelicans could satisfy the Celtics.
But would it satisfy Brown, who would then be stuck on a bad team in New Orleans, just as he would have been stuck on a bad team in Milwaukee? The Celtics are operating as if the NBA is just a business, because it is, and Brown must come to terms with that again.
He has been as professional as it gets, returning each season better than he was the year before, and the Celtics will bank on that again, hoping he and Tatum — with a reinforced roster around them — can return to contention. But what if this was the last straw? At some point Brown should wonder what he could possibly do for Boston to still want him.
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That was the risk the Celtics ran by entering the Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. A risk many Boston fans would not have taken, given a belief in a Tatum-Brown combination’s ability to compete for championships again. With the right collection around them, it is a proven concept.
And it would be more fun to watch the homegrown Tatum and Brown try to climb the mountain again than it would be to see Antetokounmpo as a mercenary in Boston. Sometimes, in pursuit of a championship, you have to remove emotion from the equation, and that is what the Celtics did here, offering a homegrown legend for a hired hand in Antetokounmpo, because it represents an upgrade on paper.
But basketball is not played on paper, and players are not without emotions, no matter how accustomed to the business of the NBA they get. There are hurt feelings in Boston. The decisions do not get any easier now for the Celtics. Somewhere Pat Riley is smiling.
