Bill Simmons wasn’t coherent. He’d just woken up from anesthesia.
But when his wife picked him up from his colonoscopy Wednesday, she revealed news to her husband that he couldn’t believe: Jaylen Brown was traded to the 76ers for a package including Paul George.
“I think I’m dead. I think I died. The anesthesia killed me,” Simmons said on his self-named podcast Thursday of what he said in the moment.
“I was just trying to process it. … it’s like I had the head injured.”
Simmons’ wife told him their daughter, a major Brown fan, was extremely upset due to the trade.
The Ringer founder was stumbling out of the hospital when the trade happened Wednesday afternoon.
“When this trade happened, I had a camera up my ass, and I had a Paul George rammed up my ass. That’s how I’m going to remember July 1, 2026,” Simmons said of his reaction to the trade.
After spending 10 years with the Celtics, Brown was traded to the 76ers on Wednesday for George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks.
The first-rounders are for 2028 and 2031, while the second-rounders are for 2028 and 2030.
The Celtics’ decision to move on from Brown comes shortly after he was rumored to be the centerpiece in a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade.
Antetokounmpo ultimately went to the Heat, but Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens still remained non-committal on Brown’s future with the team.
ESPN insider Shams Charania also revealed that the Celtics were asking for at least four first-round picks in a Brown trade, but that never materialized.
During a decade with the Celtics, Brown left no stone untouched, winning Finals MVP in 2024 and averaging more than 20 points per game every year since the 2019-20 season.
George will have major shoes to fill this upcoming season after averaging 17.3 points per game with the 76ers last year.
