Jaylen Brown Sends Message To Ex-Teammate Grant Williams After Decking Jayson Tatum

Grant Williams had planned to host some of his former teammates over his house after the Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets met on the court Friday night.

But don’t expect Celtics star Jaylen Brown to head over to Williams’ residence after what the Hornets forward pulled late in Boston’s 124-109 win at the Spectrum Center.

Williams aggressively flew in from the side and decked Jayson Tatum as the five-time All-Star made his way up the court with the ball with 2:02 left in the fourth quarter. The play was reviewed and officials gave Williams a flagrant 2 foul, resulting in an automatic ejection.

Williams said after the game it wasn’t intentional on his part to truck Tatum even though it looked that way. Brown didn’t buy Williams’ remarks and called out his former teammate.

“It was for sure intentional. What are we talking about? Ya’ll see the same play that I was seeing,” Brown told reporters, per NBC Sports Boston postgame coverage. “He hit him like it was a football play, like Ray Lewis coming across the middle or something. It is what it is. Grant knows better than that.”

The force from Williams’ hit on Tatum sent them sprawling to the ground. Tatum quickly got up and said nothing to Williams — Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla loved the type of reaction from his best player.

But Brown got in the middle of a few Hornets players and had words for Williams before they were separated.

“I was just saying, ‘That was some (expletive).’ That was pretty much it. Nothing crazy,” Brown said.

Williams played four seasons with Tatum during his tenure with the Celtics. The two developed a strong friendship and could be seen joking around during warmups before games. Tatum even defended Williams when former Celtics play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman called Williams a “bad locker room guy” last season.

Williams seemed to still be in good standing with Tatum and the rest of the Celtics as there were plenty of warm greetings prior to Friday’s contest. But Williams’ actions certainly put a bad taste in Brown’s mouth as the Celtics forward had no problem dishing out criticism.

“I don’t know what that was about,” Brown said. “I think that spoke for itself. I don’t know if Grant missed JT. I don’t know what that was. It just wasn’t a basketball play. Grant knows better than that.”

Brown added: “Actions speak loud. It is what it is. We got the win, we move on. But there’s no place in the game for that. I thought JT and Grant were friends. I guess not.”