Boston Celtics majority owner, Bill Chisholm, and team President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens, held a press conference on Monday to discuss what went into the decision to trade All-Star Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Stevens opened the press conference with a statement of appreciation for Brown. Stevens coached Brown for the first five years of his career before he stepped into the front office. He also negotiated the largest contract in NBA history with Brown, signing him to a five-year $304 million supermax contract extension in July of 2023.

Stevens went on to explain that having 70% of the cap and high-usage tied between two players isn’t going to work anymore in today’s NBA with the way the CBA is structured. With that, it’s hard to justify that financials weren’t a concern here, as Boston moved on from four players of their championship team since Chisholm and the new ownership group took over.

However, Chisholm took to the microphone multiple times to say that money had nothing to do with making these “basketball decisions” as he called it, referring to unloading Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet.

“It’s not about the money at all… This was, again, try to put together the right set of players and assets to win now, to win next year, the following year, and the year after that.”

The way Stevens started the press conference with an honest sentiment about finances and the regulations of building a contending team in today’s NBA according to the CBA, Chisholm slightly contradicted it with what he said next.

“I think we have the best front office in the NBA. They put in their work and came to the conclusion that this was the best way for us to win- and that’s the mandate, is to win. And I just have to keep saying that. We’ll spend whatever it takes to do that. The mandate is to win. Brad and his team came with a recommendation that this is the way we’re going to win. And I looked at it and I had the same reaction like ‘wow, the fan in me… it was really tough.’ I recognize that I have accountability and I’m accountable for it. Brad’s accountable to me for it and his team is accountable to him. The mandate here is to win and we came to the conclusion, they convinced me that this was the best way for us to win.”

The contradiction is with Stevens saying that ultimately trading Brown was a money decision and Chisholm is saying the opposite. The trade wasn’t perceived well by the fans and now the contradictions from this isn’t a good look either.

At the end of the day, this was a difficult decision for Stevens to make. He spent ten-years working with Brown and at times he looked like he was holding back tears when learning how upset or caught off guard that Brown said he felt during his live stream.

“I’m not saying it was the right call, and we wanted to stay good, and we wanted to add more optionality.”

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Photo Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran, The Boston Globe, Getty Images