Former Finals MVP Jaylen Brown reportedly heads to Philadelphia for 9-time All-Star Paul George and draft picks.
From NBA.com News Services
The Association crew reacts to the Philadelphia 76ers acquiring Jaylen Brown in a blockbuster trade with the Boston Celtics.
The Boston Celtics have agreed to trade Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks. The deal was first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania and confirmed by The Athletic and The Boston Globe.
76ers receive:
Celtics receive:
BLOCKBUSTER: The Boston Celtics have agreed to trade Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/xNcNlIV2mh
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 1, 2026
The trade brings Brown’s tenure to Boston to an end after five All-Star appearances in a 10-season run that saw him play in more wins — when counting both regular season and playoff games — than any other player in the league over that span.
And it is another huge move being made via trade this summer, after Giannis Antetokounmpo went from Milwaukee to Miami; Kawhi Leonard and Brandon Ingram headlined a swap between the Toronto Raptors and LA Clippers; and Ja Morant got traded to Portland by Memphis.
Philly #throwtheballup let’s get it pic.twitter.com/zdC6g1dTyM
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) July 2, 2026
“Welcome to Philly, JB!” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro posted on social media. “Sixers get way better and, as a bonus, the Celtics got worse!”
The trade breaks up what has been one of the league’s most successful 1-2 punches in Brown and Jayson Tatum, who helped carry the Celtics to the 2024 NBA title, with Brown winning Finals MVP honors.
Tatum missed most of this past season while recovering from an Achilles tear that happened in the 2025 playoffs, meaning Brown had to carry even more of the load for Boston — and he wound up with career-best averages 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.
It seemed, though, that Brown has felt underappreciated, especially after it became known that Boston had included him in trade talks with Milwaukee when Antetokounmpo was on the market.
“Nobody has won more combined regular-season and playoff games since I entered the league 10 years ago,” Brown posted on social media over the weekend. He’s right: The Celtics have won 523 games with Brown in the lineup, including playoff contests, which is six more than Denver has won with Nikola Jokic over that span.
Brown now gets to be part of a squad in Philadelphia alongside guards Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe and center Joel Embiid. The Sixers eliminated the Celtics in the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs, the latest in a record 23 postseason matchups between the Eastern Conference rivals.
Chris Haynes explains how the blockbuster trade between the Celtics and 76ers went down.
Brown, Maxey (the league’s No. 5 scorer this past season) and Embiid (a two-time NBA scoring champion) could become a positively frightening trio in Philadelphia, and the Celtics deciding to play a role in creating such a triumvirate only adds to the intrigue surrounding why they wanted to trade Brown in the first place.
The trade ends a tremendously disappointing two-year stint for George, who was traded with two years left on a four-year, $212 million free-agent contract. The 36-year-old George never approached his nine-time All-Star form in Philadelphia and his tenure was marred by a 25-game suspension last season for flunking a drug test.
He averaged just 16.7 points in his two seasons in Philadelphia after topping the 20-point mark in nine straight seasons with Indiana, Oklahoma City and the Clippers.
Brown is the latest big name brought in to team with All-Stars and franchise cornerstones Embiid and Maxey. Brown can try and lead the Sixers to their first title since 1983; a feat a steady string of stars from Ben Simmons to James Harden to George failed to do when paired with Embiid and Maxey to make a Big Three.
George cited mental health reasons as to why he failed a drug test and was suspended in late January for violating the terms of the NBA’s anti-drug program. His first year in Philly was marred by knee and adductor injuries that resulted in the forward having one of the worst years of his NBA career.
George averaged 16.2 points in just 41 games, easily his lowest scoring average in a full season since he averaged 12.1 points for Indiana in his second NBA season. He then had surgery in July on his left knee after he was injured during a workout and missed the first 12 games of this past season.
This was the first blockbuster pulled off under new team president Mike Gansey, who replaced the fired Daryl Morey.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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Follow along with NBA.com's live blog as we share news, notes and analysis during the 2026 free agent period.
From re-signings and additions to blockbuster trades, keep track of every move during the 2026 NBA offseason.
See the official contract decisions made by players and teams as free agency tips off.
Learn about the entire free agent process including key terminology, free agent types and contract options.
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