“Easy to Take the High Road”: Famed Journalist Calls Out Jayson Tatum Over Jaylen Brown Feud

The tension between Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown followed them for years as Boston Celtics teammates, and it has only grown louder since Brown’s trade to the Philadelphia 76ers. Now veteran NBA journalist David Aldridge of The Athletic has offered a different take on who has the easier side of it.

“It's easy to take the high road when you're the guy that's still on the team,” Aldridge said during a recent appearance on NBA Insiders. “One guy that's still the star of the Boston Celtics. And the other guy got traded to another team in the same division. So, you know, you could have a different feeling about it, but you won, okay?”

The off-court friction between the two resurfaced when Tatum expressed shock over Brown’s move to the Philadelphia 76ers, per a recent Instagram clip posted by Bleacher Report, stating that he wasn’t aware of the move until it happened. But Brown’s response to that with a blue baseball cap emoji clearly implied that Tatum was lying.

That one emoji was enough to keep the story going online. Tatum addressed it after the Celtics’ 107-103 win over the New York Knicks on Friday. The 28-year-old insisted there was no beef with the teammate he spent nine seasons with in Boston.

"I don't have any animosity or beef or ill will towards him (Brown),” Tatum said. “It's turned into this drama-type of thing …  For me, at this point in our lives, we're too old to be having our relationship discussed X, Y and Z on the internet.”

MassLive columnist Matt Vautour sided with Tatum, criticizing Brown for taking shots instead of confronting him directly and calling that approach “cheap, petty and cowardly.” Aldridge saw it differently. In his view, the high road is easier to take for the player who is still with the Celtics.

“I could understand the guy that got traded feeling a different kind of way about it than you do,” Aldridge added. “So that's okay. Those are both honest feelings that each of them could have. But clearly the Celtics decided the guy they were going to keep.”

But regardless of which camp both Aldridge and Vautour chose to be part of, there’s no denying that Brown is still going at it. After Philadelphia’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, he answered Tatum with another subtle dig.

"I didn’t see the full thing, but I saw that he said, ‘It’s no beef.’ And I think he’s right, there’s no beef," Brown said. "Jayson comes from a wonderful family, we’ve accomplished some great things, he’s a hell of a basketball player, and he’s got a great PR team. It’s no beef, but it might be little lamb chops and some gravy, you know what I mean? He should stay ready at all times."

Now, time will tell which higher road Tatum attempts to take after this and how Brown again finds a way to keep the topic hot.