Did Jayson Tatum Shade Jaylen Brown in Trending Video? NBA Fans Sound Off

Some NBA fans are convinced Jayson Tatum threw shade at his former Boston Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown while speaking to kids attending his basketball camp.

Tatum made the reference in question while discussing leadership in a speech originally posted on the Jayson Tatum Foundation's Instagram story.

"Being a leader doesn't mean you know it all, alright?" Tatum said. "I don't know it all. I'll be the first person to say that. Being a leader is being comfortable with raising your hand, like, I don't know, can you explain that to me? I don't know XYZ. I want to learn.

"Being around somebody that feel like they know it all, I don't want to be around that person. I don't want to be the smartest person in the room. I want to learn from somebody else."

Fans on social media quickly began questioning whether Tatum's speech was referring to Brown.

The Celtics traded Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for a package including Paul George and two first-round picks earlier this offseason.

Fox Sports analyst Colin Cowherd went viral after the deal for saying multiple NBA sources told him the Celtics felt Brown had to be the "smartest guy in every room he's in."

Brown criticized Cowherd for those comments in a livestream following his trade to the Sixers.

"I never told anybody, look, I'm the smartest person in the room," Brown said on a July 2 Twitch stream. "Now maybe I took it, but— let's keep it a buck. In sports, no offense to everybody in sports, but the bar is f--king low.

"You know what I mean? The bar isn't that high, so I think that's what people need to take into consideration. It's like, okay, he's one of the smartest athletes, but a lot of athletes in the NBA— how high is the bar, really?"

Tatum using similar wording to what Cowherd and Brown were discussing in will further fuel rumors of a split between the two former teammates prior to the trade.

ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel reported earlier this month sources from other teams had reported that "members of Tatum's camp had expressed externally to others in league circles that they were not happy with Brown's demeanor and his angle of claiming that this was the season he enjoyed the most with the Celtics."

Brown reiterated multiple times the 2025-26 campaign, during which Tatum was for the most part sidelined by an Achilles injury, was the favorite of his Boston career.

Tatum will now be tasked with resuming his role as the fulcrum of the Celtics' offense, while Brown will join a Sixers roster that has even bigger championship aspirations after the signing of star free agent LeBron James.