PHILADELPHIA — Jaylen Brown and Al Horford were both sound asleep when news of the NBA’s earth-shattering trade — which swapped superstars Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis — first unfolded late Saturday night.
But, Kristaps Porzingis, was awake and told reporters that he first learned about ESPN’s Shams Charania’s Tweet from someone on the Philadelphia street.
“He was like, ‘You heard about the trade?’” Porzingis said, then added that for a moment he thought the transaction involved him.
“What happened? Did I get traded?”
When Porzingis finally got the full scoop that two of the game’s top stars had been traded for one another, he was in complete shock, emphasizing to reporters that Doncic — his former teammate of three seasons in Dallas — was only 25 years old.
“Just like everybody else, I didn’t believe it,” Porzingis said.
Al Horford similarly said he was stunned when his young brother shared the news this morning.
“One of the biggest moves in NBA history,” Horford, who has spent 17 seasons in the NBA, resoundingly stated.
Celtics two-way player Drew Peterson shared that his friend immediately sent him the news: Doncic, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris were shipped to Los Angeles in exchange for Davis, Max Christie, and a Lakers 2029 first-round draft pick.
Like most people online, the 25-year-old immediately assumed it was fake.
“I thought for sure ‘this account must be hacked, or something’,” Peterson told CelticsBlog before the Celtics’ Sunday evening game against the 76ers.
And, after the dust had settled, Porzingis’s sentiments reflected that of most of the population.
“I think this is the craziest trade in history,” Porzingis said.
But, Jaylen Brown wasn’t quite as shocked as the rest of us
Jaylen Brown, who has dealt with his fair share of trade rumors during his 8-year NBA tenure, was one of the veteran Celtics players who were asleep at the time of the news breaking.
“I woke up and saw the news, and I was like, ‘wow’ for sure,” Brown told CelticsBlog before Sunday’s match-up with the 76ers. “But then when you think about it — it kind of made somewhat sense, to some degree — looking at some of the reports and some of the stuff that people have already said.”
Brown and the Celtics faced the Mavericks during the NBA Finals in June — a series that served as the peak of his professional career to date. Just a summer removed from signing a supermax contract, Brown averaged 22.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 4.3 assists in the Finals, serving as Doncic’s primary defender en route to a Finals MVP award.
Few could have predicted that the following season, Doncic would be dealt.
Still, Brown wasn’t stunned.
“Anything can happen,” Brown said. “People fall out. Organizations lose trust. Business happens — it happens every day. Not too surprised, to be honest.”
For Brown, the fascinating part of the transaction was less about what’s already transpired — and more about what implications it will have league-wide, whether that be NBA teams making trades to better match up with the new-look Mavericks and Lakers — or teams simply being more willing to part with their star players.
“I feel like a trade of that magnitude has a trickle-down effect — other decisions are made based off of this one decision,” Brown said. “So I’m curious to see how the rest of next year and this offseason is going to go.”
On late Saturday, the landscape rapidly changed. Brown thinks it could be just the beginning.
“What comes next?”
