Jaylen Brown adjusting in ‘phases’ to his new home with the Sixers

Few NBA players ever go through an offseason like the one Jaylen Brown just had.

After Brown had the best individual season of his career, the Celtics reportedly considered trading him to the Bucks in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. As the summer went along, the Celtics ultimately decided now was the time to move off Brown, who had won a championship as a Finals MVP in his 10-year tenure with Boston.

There was all kinds of dialogue about Brown, about his value as a player when it came to advanced statistics, or that the league might perceive him as too smart for his own good.

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At media day Monday, Brown said he had an issue with all the anonymously sourced reports about his play or his character, and he singled out one that still irked him from national radio voice and Fox host Colin Cowherd.

“What’s the word I want to use? I would say concerning, maybe a little bizarre, definitely some undertones there,” Brown said of some of the things being said about him. “Colin Cowherd said I had a disease, or his source said I had a disease. I don’t know what that was about.”

The 76ers, of course, were the prime benefactors of this drama, with Brown coming to Philadelphia in a July trade. That move then tipped the scales in their favor in the pursuit of LeBron James, even if it may take some adjusting for his rivals-turned-teammates seeing him in these new threads.

“Seeing him in Philly’s uniform in red, white, and blue is awkward,” Tyrese Maxey said. “But it’s good. He’s a good guy and he’s going to adapt quickly.”

Brown sounded as if he was still adjusting to this change of scenery. Last month, he threw a block party for the city of Boston, with thousands showing up to the event, which was a capstone for his Boston tenure and all he did in the city off the court.

“It’s phases for sure,” Brown said. “It’s a mental side. It’s an emotional side. It’s a physical side. It’s a bunch of phases to just getting comfortable and getting set up. It’s an adjustment, it’s new. Every day is a day forward.”

As Brown gets acclimated to his new surroundings, he said he will be focused on boosting the team defensively. That end of the floor is where “we should hang our hats as a team.”

“Offensively, we’ve got a lot of firepower, but we’ve got to all hold each other accountable on defense,” Brown said. “So I’m looking forward to that. I’m looking forward to that challenge, but you know it’s gonna take time. It’s gonna take familiarity, getting used to the defensive systems and calls.”

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That’s what practice is for, with Brown and the rest of his teammates all emphasizing that acclimating to each other would take time. Throughout media day and in their comments running up to it, the Sixers also said the season would require a lot of “sacrifice.” Brown’s teammate in Boston, Anfernee Simons, saying sacrifice was going to be the “word of the year.”

To that end, Brown wasn’t feeling a question that centered on who was the team’s alpha, or if that was something that even mattered to this group of players. He responded with, “next question.”

One question he did take time to answer was one that involved his championship pedigree, and if he can use that experience to infuse the Sixers.

“I’m not so sure if that’s true,” Brown said. “It’s a new group. I’m approaching this with an empty slate. Just coming in every single day and just trying to maximize every opportunity. Not taking anything for granted. I don’t have any, I wouldn’t say, expectation. …

“I’m not so sure if things in the past will help you. They may. But there may be some stuff you have to figure out and do differently as well. I’m ready for either.”