Ex-Celtics Grant Williams gets 100% on Jayson Tatum’s relationship with Jaylen Brown

· Yahoo Sports

Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Ex-Celtics Grant Williams gets 100% on Jayson Tatum’s relationship with Jaylen Brown appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Visit syntagm.co.za for more information.

Grant Williams is not buying into the narrative surrounding his former Celtics teammates. The forward addressed the lingering speculation about Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s relationship, pushing back on reports that the two stars did not get along off the court during their nearly decade-long run together in Boston.

“A lot of the current national media, to be able to have those conversations, is to create the story rather than just allow those players to have success,” Williams told SiriusXM NBA Radio. “You saw it back in the day with Kobe and Shaq. Maybe they didn’t like each other, but you saw it in other situations. Sometimes you’re competitors, and you want to have the best career individually, but also you can bring the best out of someone else beside you.”

Williams made clear he believes Tatum and Brown’s bond went beyond just what happened on the court.

“They had the respect for one another, they enjoyed being around one another, and on the court as well as they didn’t have any disdain for one another off the floor,” Williams said. “That’s something I can vividly say, that I don’t think those guys dislike each other at all.”

The comments come amid ongoing scrutiny of the pair’s relationship following Boston’s decision to trade Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers this offseason for Paul George and draft compensation. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that while Tatum and Brown had excellent chemistry on the court, their personal relationship over the past year had grown “as close to not existent as you could have.”

Tatum has since pushed back on that framing himself, insisting the two remain close despite the trade.

“I have nothing obviously but love and respect for Jaylen,” Tatum said. “There was a period of our career where we hadn’t won a championship yet, but in retrospect, we were only 23 and 21 years old, so the expectations were so high that they just had to figure out a reason why we hadn’t won yet.”

Brown was the No. 3 overall pick in 2016, and Tatum went third the following year, with the two combining to lead Boston to the 2024 NBA championship before Brown’s abrupt exit this summer.

Related: Celtics’ Jordan Walsh opens up on missing Jaylen Brown as team plane seatmate

Related: Celtics legend Ray Allen confirms decision on Doc Rivers’ Hall of Fame induction

Read full story at source