PHILADELPHIA — Jaylen Brown and Al Horford had been each slumbering when information of the NBA’s earth-shattering commerce — which swapped superstars Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis — first unfolded late Saturday evening.
However, Kristaps Porzingis, was awake and instructed reporters that he first discovered about ESPN’s Shams Charania’s Tweet from somebody on the Philadelphia avenue.
“He was like, ‘You heard concerning the commerce?’” Porzingis mentioned, then added that for a second he thought the transaction concerned him.
“What occurred? Did I get traded?”
When Porzingis lastly acquired the complete scoop that two of the sport’s prime stars had been traded for each other, he was in full shock, emphasizing to reporters that Doncic — his former teammate of three seasons in Dallas — was solely 25 years previous.
“Similar to everyone else, I didn’t imagine it,” Porzingis mentioned.
Al Horford equally mentioned he was surprised when his younger brother shared the information this morning.
“One of many largest strikes in NBA historical past,” Horford, who has spent 17 seasons within the NBA, resoundingly said.
Celtics two-way participant Drew Peterson shared that his pal instantly despatched him the information: Doncic, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris had been shipped to Los Angeles in trade for Davis, Max Christie, and a Lakers 2029 first-round draft decide.
Like most individuals on-line, the 25-year-old instantly assumed it was pretend.
“I believed for certain ‘this account have to be hacked, or one thing’,” Peterson instructed CelticsBlog earlier than the Celtics’ Sunday night recreation in opposition to the 76ers.
And, after the mud had settled, Porzingis’s sentiments mirrored that of a lot of the inhabitants.
“I feel that is the craziest commerce in historical past,” Porzingis mentioned.
However, Jaylen Brown wasn’t fairly as shocked as the remainder of us
Jaylen Brown, who has dealt together with his justifiable share of commerce rumors throughout his 8-year NBA tenure, was one of many veteran Celtics gamers who had been asleep on the time of the information breaking.
“I wakened and noticed the information, and I used to be like, ‘wow’ for certain,” Brown instructed CelticsBlog earlier than Sunday’s match-up with the 76ers. “However then when you concentrate on it — it type of made considerably sense, to a point — among the studies and among the stuff that folks have already mentioned.”
Brown and the Celtics confronted the Mavericks throughout the NBA Finals in June — a collection that served as the height of his skilled profession thus far. Only a summer time faraway from signing a supermax contract, Brown averaged 22.3 factors, 6.5 rebounds, and 4.3 assists within the Finals, serving as Doncic’s main defender en path to a Finals MVP award.
Few might have predicted that the next season, Doncic can be dealt.
Nonetheless, Brown wasn’t surprised.
“Something can occur,” Brown mentioned. “Folks fall out. Organizations lose belief. Enterprise occurs — it occurs day-after-day. Not too stunned, to be sincere.”
For Brown, the fascinating a part of the transaction was much less about what’s already transpired — and extra about what implications it’ll have league-wide, whether or not that be NBA groups making trades to raised match up with the new-look Mavericks and Lakers — or groups merely being extra prepared to half with their star gamers.
“I really feel like a commerce of that magnitude has a trickle-down impact — different choices are made primarily based off of this one resolution,” Brown mentioned. “So I’m curious to see how the remainder of subsequent yr and this offseason goes to go.”
On late Saturday, the panorama quickly modified. Brown thinks it may very well be just the start.
“What comes subsequent?”
