Jaylen Brown says he has no beef with former Celtics teammate Jayson Tatum

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jaylen Brown says there’s “no beef” between himself and former Boston Celtics teammate Jayson Tatum even as their squabbles have dragged into the season.

Now with the Philadelphia 76ers after an offseason trade, Brown didn’t quite seem ready to call a truce with Tatum.

“There’s no beef,” Brown said after the 76ers beat Milwaukee 127-116 on Saturday night. “There might be a little lamb chops and some gravy. He should stay ready at all times.”

Tatum started the postgame back-and-forth after the Celtics beat the Knicks a night earlier.

Brown posted a social media response that took issue with Tatum saying in a video on his YouTube channel that he was “just as much caught off guard as the rest of the world” by Brown’s trade to the Philadelphia.

Brown responded on his Instagram account with a baseball cap emoji. “Cap” is slang for something that is not true. Asked if he had any response, Tatum sighed before expressing his frustrations with the entire situation for several minutes:

“I don’t have any animosity or beef, or ill will towards him. I think the toughest part is since he’s not on 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. It’s turned into this drama type of thing.”

Brown said he had no plans to talk to Tatum ahead of Boston’s first visit to Philadelphia this season on Nov. 10.

“We’ve both got so much stuff in front of us,” Brown said.

Brown added: “Jayson comes from a wonderful family. We accomplished some great things. He’s a hell of a basketball player. He’s got a great PR team.”

Both players have spoken glowingly at times about how they grew and thrived together during their nine years together as teammates.

But it’s morphed into something else since the Celtics chose Tatum as the player they want to build around after trading Brown in what amounted to a move to cut one of the two players with $300 million contracts from the payroll.

Brown celebrated his 30th birthday on Saturday with 27 points that included a late 3-pointer on a pass from Joel Embiid that gave the All-Star center a triple-double. Embiid had 28 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists and went 12 of 14 from the free-throw line.

“I’m still getting used to the guys; where my spots are,” Brown said. “As I get more and more comfortable, I’ll be able to make more plays for myself and others.”

Philadelphia is 3-0, with its first two wins over the NBA champion Knicks and Eastern Conference finalist Cleveland Cavaliers.

Brown was serenaded with an off-key version of “Happy Birthday” by rookie Labaron Philon Jr. earlier in the day at shootaround. Sixers fans broke into their rendition of the song in the first half with Brown at the free-throw line.

There just might be more on the menu than birthday cake.

“No beef,” Brown said. “It should never, ever be that. It’s just basketball. We’re both blessed. It might be a little lamb chop. We’re all right.”

___

See AP’s full NBA coverage here