Drama Unfolds: Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum's Tense Reunion

There is so much drama between Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, but it is embarrassing when these two men who spent a decade together, these two men who at one point were tight, tight enough to be here in Vegas, playing basketball with each other, pick up, working, getting ready for the year. These two men had a relationship in some form or fashion. Now, how deep did it go? Was it really just on the surface? It wasn't a real friendship, whatever it was, but they had a relationship where if you get on the court with a guy you played with for years and he walks over to you to shake your hand and your reaction is to spin a basketball like you're a fifth grader. What is going on with Jalen Brown? How I can't believe LeBron James did not talk to him before pregame and say, hey, man, if JT is walking around and dapping everybody up, just shake his hand. Like, don't you don't need to keep it going like the beef is going to be there. The drama is going to be there. You don't need to keep it going in front of thousands on national TV, on NBC, with everybody watching. You don't need to do that. Just shake his hand. After the game, Jalen Brown went to every single Celtics player and shook the hand of every single player except for Jason Tatum. Like, I mean, what are we doing? It's ridiculous, and I don't blame Jason Tatum after the game. He tried to shake Jalen Brown's hand pregame, and Jalen Brown stood there spinning a basketball in front of everybody. It wasn't like this was before the game. It wasn't like it was some in a hallway somewhere. This was at center court, where normally all five starters shake the hands of the other five starters. Jalen Brown ignored Jason Tatum. It didn't feel right. It felt wrong. It felt awkward. It felt like you were watching some breakup between a marriage, you know, a divorce that just didn't end right. It's a really Bill Simmons had a really funny email or last night about the relationship between the two guys and like Jason Tatum. The person, the man or the woman in the divorce, who wound up with the kids, who wound up with the house, who wound up with the bank account, who wound up winning in the divorce, and the other guy is, man or female, oftentimes a male, is sitting in a two-bedroom condo somewhere, pining over his ex-wife, anger at the court system for robbing him and just being bitter all the time and screaming into the wind about how life is unfair. Get up and move on with your life, because clearly you did not bring your A game. He was awful last night. The Celtics blew out the Sixers. But you don't, as this is from the New York Times, and I love this, the New York Times wrote this, here's what you don't do in a revenge game. You don't get into foul trouble early, which Jalen Brown did. You don't force the issue on offense, which is what Jalen Brown always does. You have as many turnovers as you do made baskets, because that's the dirty secret of Jalen Brown's game. He's a walking turnover. You're a non-factor when you are on the floor, and you have the worst plus minus of anybody on the floor, a minus 27. With Jalen Brown on the floor, four of nine, nine points, four turnovers in 25 very non-influential and consequential moments in minutes for Jalen Brown. I mean, if he thought he was going to go and send a message to everybody in Boston, everybody with the Celtics of like, huh, look at me, you lost me. Now that was, I mean, if you're Brad Stevens, you're like, here you go. You want to know why we traded him? That's why. Is he a good player? There's no debating. Jalen Brown is a very good player. I saw somebody call Jalen Brown a top 10 player in the NBA this morning. Like, no.