Jaylen Brown ratchets up Jayson Tatum drama: ‘He should stay ready at all times’

Despite Jayson Tatum’s efforts to cool the conversations around the Celtics star and his former teammate, Jaylen Brown poured fuel on the fire by Saturday night.

The most recent development in the back-and-forth saga in regards to having “beef” with one another, Brown — now a 76er — didn’t say there is as much.

However, he suggested there are “lamp chops and some gravy” and that Tatum “should stay ready at all times.”

“I didn’t see the full thing, but I saw that he said it’s no beef, and I think he’s right,” Brown said of Tatum’s most recent comments following the 76ers’ 127-116 victory over the Bucks on Saturday. “There’s no beef. Jayson comes from a wonderful family. We’ve accomplished some great things. He’s hell of a basketball player. He’s got a great PR team. There’s no beef, but it might be a little lamb chops and some gravy. He should stay ready at all times.”

When a follow up question came, asking why he said that Brown stated “That’s what it is.”

“No beef. It should never, ever be that. It’s just basketball. We both blessed. But it might be a little lamb chop. We’ll be alright,” he concluded.

The he-said, he-said all stems from a comment Brown made on Tatum’s post of the new episode of his “The Sit Down” series on Thursday.

The episode highlighted how Tatum learned of Boston trading Brown to Philadelphia during the offseason in July. He explained he was “caught off guard as the rest of the world.” That didn’t seem to sit right with Brown, who commented the blue cap emoji on the post.

The following day, Tatum responded to Brown’s comment during his postgame press conference after the Celtics’ win over the Knicks, stating the situation “ain’t no f–king Shaq and Kobe.”

“I understand we’re in the entertainment business. Me personally, I’m not much of an off-the-court entertainer type of guy,” the 28-year-old said. “For me, I don’t have any animosity or beef or ill will towards him. I think the frustrating part is, since he’s not with the Celtics anymore, the narrative or the conversations haven’t been enough about what we accomplished. All the games we won, winning a championship, how we’ve grown together. And it’s turned into this drama type of thing.

“I’ve seen all these things about ‘get your popcorn ready when they play.’ This ain’t no f–king boxing match. I play basketball. Again, there’s no animosity. There’s no beef. I just hate the way the conversation and the narrative around it when there’s not enough communication. And I think a conversation would solve or put out a lot of fires.”

After Saturday’s game, Brown was asked if his cap emoji comment was meant to suggest Tatum was lying about the true sequence of events in Boston. Yet, he dodged the question.

“Hey, look, like I said, there’s no beef. The PR and all that type of stuff, it is what it is. But I think we’re just both focused on what’s in front of us,” the 30-year-old said.

In 2016, the Celtics drafted Brown third overall in the NBA Draft. The following year, Tatum was taken third overall out of Duke.

Since then, the two have been defining figures for the franchise.

Since the 2016-2017 season, the Celtics made four Eastern Conference Finals appearance and two NBA Finals berths. The two led Boston to take home the title in 2024 and Brown won the Finals MVP.

Despite their successful history, it’s unknown if the two will reconcile their differences. When asked if he’s open to having a conversation with Tatum, it didn’t seem high on Brown’s to-do list.

“We both got so much stuff in front of us. So, you know, at the end of the day, he gotta do what he gotta do for his team. I gotta do what I gotta do for my team,” he said.

The 76ers will host the Celtics for their first meeting of the season on Nov. 10 at Xfinity Mobile Arena.