Jaylen Brown Makes Unexpected Gesture to Celtics Fan as He Makes First Public Appearance After Getting Traded to 76ers

The Boston Celtics shockingly traded Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday. It was a trade that nobody saw coming, despite the Celtics making their intentions on testing Brown's trade market value clear.

Apparently, Brown was in Orlando when the trade took place. The now 76ers star was in attendance in OBL to coach players in the 'For the Throne' tournament. During his time in the tournament, the trade was made public, which was also brought to his attention. Despite knowing that he's no longer playing for Boston, he still signed a young fan's Celtics jersey.

Headed to the Celtics is Paul George. Boston agreed to a trade package from the 76ers, which included George and several draft picks. Honestly speaking, this trade turned lots of heads and raised plenty of eyebrows.

Many believe that the 76ers won the trade. For one, they finally got rid of a player who was barely available to help the team. Of the two seasons George played in Philly, he played only 78 games due to several injuries. Even after two seasons, he couldn't complete one campaign with his combined number of games.

Meanwhile, the 76ers are now expecting to welcome a five-time All-Star who's coming fresh from his MVP-caliber season. Brown was among the top 10 MVP candidates last season, finishing in sixth place. His efforts helped lead the Celtics to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference during the absence of Jayson Tatum.

Now that Brown will be playing next to Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, it's quite intriguing to know what the trio can accomplish next season.

Celtics Believe Derrick White Had a Better Season Compared to Jaylen Brown

There's no questioning that Jaylen Brown was a huge reason why the Boston Celtics remained one of the most elite teams in the Eastern Conference last season. Many doubted that the Celtics would stay among the top teams because of Jayson Tatum's absence from the lineup.

However, Brown proved everyone wrong, leading the Celtics to a 56-26 record. Brown averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.0 steals to help accomplish this feat. Despite his impressive numbers, NBA insider Brian Windhorst revealed that the Celtics thought otherwise, hence the decision to trade him. Windhorst also mentioned that Boston loved Derrick White's performance over Brown's.

"Look, I just know that the Celtics felt that even though Jaylen Brown was talking about himself for MVP or there was this MVP campaign for Jaylen Brown, the Celtics did not feel that Jaylen had the best season on their team," Windhorst said on his show. "I don't mean Jayson Tatum; they felt that Derrick White had a better season."

To be fair to White, he had a more all-around performance last season. White averaged 16.5 points, 5.4 assists, 4.4 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, and 1.1 steals. Clearly, it all came down to the Celtics' preference.

With all that in mind, it'll be interesting to see how a consistently absent Paul George could help the Celtics thrive next season.