“It Was Hurting”: Jaylen Brown Opens Up About Unexpected Experience With New 76ers Teammate

When Jaylen Brown first learned he'd been traded from Boston to Philadelphia, he was so blindsided that he threw his phone across the room. The 76ers forward revealed a much different kind of frustration, one that has nothing to do with basketball, and everything to do with getting embarrassed by his new teammates on a golf course.

In a new conversation with actor Mahershala Ali for The Hollywood Reporter, Brown opened up about attending a golf outing hosted by teammate Tyrese Maxey, his first time ever picking up a club. Despite his teammates' relaxed attitude about the outing, Brown admitted the experience left him rattled.

"Inside, it was hurting me to know that these guys were better than me," Brown said. "You know what I mean?"

That discomfort turned into a plan. Maxey and the others brushed off the outing as just a bonding exercise, telling him it was cool, that they were just vibing and building chemistry.

"In my brain, that feeling I had inside, I'm about to go hire a golf instructor," Brown said. "I'm about to go grind for two months straight, come back, and act like I didn't even... act like, oh man, yeah. That's probably how my brain works. I don't know why. I just don't like not being good at things."

It says plenty about the mentality that Jaylen Brown is bringing into his first season in Philadelphia. A five-time All-Star used to being one of the best players on any court, Brown has openly admitted that the things which come naturally to him rarely bother him. It's the ones that expose a weakness, however minor, that eat at him until he fixes it.

The 76ers are hoping for that mentality. And that's one of the reasons they pulled off the blockbuster trade that brought him to Philadelphia in the first place.

Traded from Boston on July 1 in a deal that sent Paul George and multiple picks back to the Celtics. Brown admitted that the news hit him hard in the moment.

"When I first got traded, I just threw my phone across the room," he told reporters at his introductory press conference. It wasn't long, though, before Maxey reached out personally. "I think Maxey reached out to me first," Brown said. "He reached out and was like, 'I know it's a lot of stuff going on right now, but we're excited to have you.'"

That early gesture from Maxey set the tone for a Philadelphia offseason. The Jaylen Brown trade reshaped the 76ers' heading into 2026-27, and according to Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, it was the move that convinced LeBron James to sign with the franchise as a free agent soon after.

Brown now walks into a locker room built around him, Maxey and Joel Embiid. James is expected to add a layer of championship urgency none of them had entering the summer.