{"id":563634,"date":"2026-01-27T07:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T07:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/563634\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T07:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T07:48:16","slug":"jaylen-brown-reacts-to-weird-reunion-with-former-celtics-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/563634\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaylen Brown Reacts To &#8216;Weird&#8217; Reunion With Former Celtics Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nineteen months after beating the Dallas Mavericks together in the 2024 NBA Finals, Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday shared a court as rivals rather than teammates.<\/p>\n<p>Brown\u2019s Boston Celtics hosted Holiday\u2019s Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night at TD Garden. It was Holiday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/01\/joe-mazzulla-praises-jrue-holiday-ahead-of-celtics-trail-blazers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first time facing his former team<\/a> since <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/06\/jrue-holiday-three-word-message-celtics-trade\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">being traded<\/a> to the Trail Blazers last summer.<\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, Holiday received a warm reception from his former fans, teammates and coaches. The 35-year-old guard is one of the most respected and popular players in the league.<\/p>\n<p>The Celtics also welcomed back Robert Williams III, who was traded to Portland after the 2022-23 campaign. Monday\u2019s game was his first time facing his former team as well.<\/p>\n<p>Brown played multiple seasons with both, so it was strange for him to see them in enemy uniforms. He still holds them in high regard, however.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jaylen Brown on Jrue Holiday and Robert Williams III:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c2 great guys, 2 great people. On the floor, but off the floor as well. Jrue has a great family. And Rob is just a great dude\u2026Still a little weird to see them on the other side.\u201d<br \/>\u2013<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CLNSMedia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@CLNSMedia<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/U8vTWBQOR6\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/U8vTWBQOR6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Celtics on CLNS (@CelticsCLNS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CelticsCLNS\/status\/2016010328128041389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo great guys, two great people. On the floor, but off the floor as well,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CelticsCLNS\/status\/2016010328128041389\" rel=\"nofollow\">Brown told reporters<\/a> after the game. \u201cJrue has a great family. And Rob is just a great dude\u2026Still a little weird to see them on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, Boston has continued to play at a championship level without them, going 29-17 this season and ranking second in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Celtics beat the Trail Blazers on Monday, leading for the entire game en route to a 102-94 victory. Brown settled for 20 points against Portland\u2019s tough defense while also contributing eight rebounds, four assists and four steals.<\/p>\n<p>Holiday <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/10\/ex-celtics-guard-jrue-holiday-has-been-terrific-for-trail-blazers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">did a little bit of everything<\/a> with 14 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block, excelling on both ends of the floor. Williams also played well with six points, two rebounds, two steals and a block in 20 minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n<p>Brown will see another old teammate on Wedneday when Boston hosts the Atlanta Hawks and Kristaps Porzingis on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nineteen months after beating the Dallas Mavericks together in the 2024 NBA Finals, Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,78,2038,6,13399],"class_list":{"0":"post-563634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-jaylen-brown","14":"tag-jrue-holiday","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-robert-williams-iii"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115965965846231752","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}