Jaylen Brown Was Visibly Happy When Jayson Tatum Ignored Steve Kerr

Tatum was speaking to Stephen Curry at the time and Kerr waited next to them for a bit so that he could perhaps say a word or two. He soon realized the Celtics superstar was paying no attention to him and walked off, much to Brown's delight.

To be fair to Tatum, though, you could see him briefly share a hug with Kerr a while later. It could just be that he didn't notice the 59-year-old when he was speaking to Curry.

Someone who did notice that Kerr was standing there was Brown and these two had no interest in speaking to each other. They just awkwardly stood there and even avoided eye contact. It would appear that Tatum might have put the events from this past summer behind him but Brown hasn't. 

Tatum, of course, was part of Team USA's roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics but found himself on the bench for a lot longer than he'd have liked. He averaged just 17.7 minutes per game in the tournament and Kerr, who was the head coach, didn't even play him in two of the six contests.

Kerr stated he felt like an idiot for not playing Tatum against Serbia in the first game but then decided not to play him again when the teams met in the semifinal. It was just an odd situation all around but to Tatum's credit, he didn't make much of a fuss about it. 

While Tatum kept quiet in the summer, Brown did not. He was not part of the Olympics roster and was upset about it. What made matters worse, was his Celtics teammate Derrick White being brought in as a replacement over him when Kawhi Leonard had to later withdraw from the team due to injury.

Brown had a cryptic reaction to White replacing Leonard on Team USA. He appeared to hint that not being a Nike athlete played a part in his exclusion.

USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill stated, though, that Brown's exclusion was purely a basketball decision. He denied there was any conspiracy involved but the Celtics star wasn't buying it. Brown called out Hill for suggesting he was a conspiracy theorist and those comments might have just further fueled the rage within him.

The summer events meant there would be a little bit of added tension in the air when the Celtics faced the Warriors this season. The first meeting on Nov. 6, 2024, saw the Warriors surprisingly win 118-112 at TD Garden and the Celtics managed to get revenge in this one. 

Tatum led the way with 22 points (9-20 FG), nine rebounds, seven assists, and two steals while Brown had 17 points (8-14 FG), four rebounds, and two assists. With the game being so lopsided, the two didn't even have to play in the fourth quarter.

The Celtics improved to 30-13 on the season with this win. They had stumbled a bit recently and bounced back in style here. It will be interesting to see how the Celtics fare in their next game, as they take on the Los Angeles Clippers at the Intuit Dome on Wednesday at 10:30 PM ET.

As for the Warriors, they have dropped to 21-21. Kerr hasn't been able to find the solutions to their problems and they take on the red-hot Sacramento Kings next at Golden 1 Center on Wednesday at 10 PM ET.