United States’ Malik Tillman (17) celebrates with teammates after scoring on a free kick. (AP Photo)

The United States overcame second-half adversity to defeat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 on Wednesday night, securing only the second FIFA World Cup knockout-stage victory in the nation’s history despite playing the final 26 minutes with 10 men after Folarin Balogun’s controversial red card.Balogun opened the scoring with his third goal of the tournament before being sent off midway through the second half, but Malik Tillman produced a stunning late free-kick to seal a memorable Round of 32 triumph and send the hosts into the last 16 of the expanded 48-team tournament.The victory sets up a mouth-watering clash against Belgium in Seattle on Monday as Mauricio Pochettino’s side continue their dream of a deep World Cup run on home soil.

Balogun shines before red card drama

The United States entered the match as favourites but survived an early scare after goalkeeper Matt Freese produced two crucial saves to deny Ermedin Demirovic, while Kerim Alajbegovic also threatened from a corner.Once the hosts settled, Balogun took centre stage.The striker had one goal ruled out for offside and appealed for penalties on two separate occasions before finally breaking the deadlock just before half-time. Tim Ream intercepted possession near midfield before Malik Tillman slipped a clever pass into the box, allowing Balogun to slide a left-footed finish beyond Nikola Vasilj for his third goal of the tournament.The strike left him just one goal shy of Bert Patenaude’s long-standing record of four goals by an American player at a single World Cup, set in 1930. Balogun celebrated with his version of LeBron James’ iconic “Silencer” gesture, earning an approving reaction from the NBA superstar.However, the evening took a dramatic turn in the 64th minute. Balogun was shown a straight red card after a challenge on Tarik Muharemovic, forcing the hosts to play the remainder of the contest a man down.

Tillman seals famous victory

Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Americans remained composed defensively and frustrated Bosnia’s attempts to find an equaliser.The decisive moment arrived in the 82nd minute when Tillman curled a brilliant free-kick from just outside the penalty area. Vasilj managed to get a hand to the effort but could only help it into the net as Levi’s Stadium erupted in celebration.The victory ended a miserable run against European opposition at the World Cup. The United States had failed to beat a European team in the tournament since defeating Portugal in 2002 and had gone 13 World Cup meetings without a victory, including a heartbreaking extra-time defeat to Belgium in the Round of 16 in 2014.It also snapped a 10-match winless streak against European opponents at the World Cup and marked just the second knockout-stage triumph in U.S. men’s World Cup history after the famous 2002 Round of 16 victory over Mexico. The Americans had previously reached the semifinals in the inaugural 1930 edition after topping their group before the knockout format was introduced.Bosnia, meanwhile, exited with plenty of pride after reaching the knockout rounds for the first time in only their second World Cup appearance, having drawn with Canada and defeated Qatar during the group stage.

Three months ago, Jaylen Brown was finishing off his best season as a pro, averaging 28.7 points per game and taking a leap from All-Star to All-NBA player in Jayson Tatum’s absence while leading the Boston Celtics to the East’s No. 2 seed in what most projected to be a gap year. 

Now, Brown is reportedly a member of the rival Philadelphia 76ers after a shocking trade on Wednesday that sent Brown to Philly in exchange for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks. After a decade in Boston that included 10 trips to the playoffs, five All-Star appearances and a championship, it was stunning to see the Celtics so frantic in trying to unload Brown. That they ultimately took back a package with just two first-round picks — after reports indicated they were asking for four as recently as a week ago — and George coming off his two worst seasons in more than a decade is almost unbelievable. 

Where most trades involving star talent include some level of player involvement at this point, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported earlier in the week that he’d heard team president Brad Stevens and the Celtics were offering Brown “everywhere.” That was corroborated by ESPN’s Shams Charania‘s note after the trade that Boston had been “full-blown shopping” Brown around the league over the past week. That doesn’t happen if there’s a salvageable relationship between player and franchise. 

Jaylen Brown trade grades: 76ers get ‘A+’ for landing Celtics star as Boston makes baffling decision

Sam Quinn

Advertisement

Everything about this felt out of character for the way the Celtics have operated for the last decade. Every move Stevens made felt surgical, but Brown’s trade was the opposite. After years of rarely making so much as a minor misstep, to have the team’s relationship with Brown completely implode to the point of a hurried trade just to get him out is almost disorienting. 

How the relationship between the Celtics and Brown got to this point is a question that will be steadily unpacked all summer. Plenty of behind-the-scenes revelations will surface in the coming weeks and months, offering further insight. But with this trade, it’s abundantly clear that things had reached a breaking point with a rift that could not be bridged. 

So, how did we get here? That’s a complicated question that goes back almost to the beginning, but escalated rapidly over the past few months. 

The relationship between Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum

A year after Brown was drafted third overall by the Celtics in the 2016 NBA Draft, they added another young star wing by selecting Tatum at No. 3 in 2017. “The Jays” enjoyed immediate success, but as their stars grew, so did the chatter questioning whether they would co-exist given their respective desires to be the top star. 

Both Brown and Tatum publicly dismissed any internal animosity over the years, but as Tatum emerged as the Celtics’ leading man in recent years, many wondered how much it irked Brown to be viewed as the Robin to Tatum’s Batman. As the Celtics fell short of a championship in the first six years of their partnership, there were constant questions about whether they were the right pairing or if their overlapping skill sets would be better served on separate teams.

Advertisement

A championship in 2024 quieted that noise, with Brown earning some personal accolades with a Finals MVP trophy. Brown was also handsomely compensated by the Celtics, earning a five-year, $285 million contract. But elite athletes aren’t often satisfied with just having the contract or even the chance to win championships. Legacy matters and even Brown’s Finals MVP didn’t change the public perception about who was the top dog in Boston. It wouldn’t be hard for Brown to feel like he was not getting the level of respect he deserved, and the strain on that relationship and the challenge in managing those two egos only got tougher this season when Brown thrived in a leading role with Tatum sidelined by the Achilles injury he suffered in the 2025 playoffs.

Brown averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game on 47.7/34.7/79.5 shooting splits to become an MVP candidate while Tatum missed the majority of the year rehabbing his Achilles tear. Brown proclaimed himself the league’s best two-way player on multiple occasions, clearly feeling his season in a leading role affirmed he could thrive as the top dog. 

When Tatum returned, it was in a secondary role as he was still limited while ramping up after an extended absence. Vibes were high as the postseason arrived, but a stunning seven-game loss to the Sixers in the first round derailed everything. 

The summer Twitch streams

Brown has never been afraid to speak his mind, but his turn as a Twitch streamer undoubtedly caused some headaches in the Celtics’ building as he grew more unfiltered on his own platform. Brown earned himself a $50,000 fine for calling into question the officiating in Boston’s playoff loss to the Sixers. He also called out Joel Embiid for flopping — a fun subplot to monitor as Brown makes his way to Philly. 

Jaylen Brown calls out Joel Embiid for flopping, says NBA refs have ‘agenda’ against him during Twitch stream

Sam Quinn

Advertisement

He also made some telling comments. Brown notably called this past season — when he led the show with Tatum out injured — his “favorite” in his career, quite the statement given he won a championship two years ago. While he insisted that it was because he loved seeing Boston’s young guys thrive, it wasn’t hard to read that as Brown enjoying the chance to finally be the lead option. 

Brown continued his streams through the summer, and things took another turn once the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes began heating up. 

The Giannis trade talks

Brown’s name has appeared in trade rumors before, but Boston’s pursuit of Antetokounmpo ahead of June’s NBA Draft was different. Previously, Brown’s name had popped up here and there over the years, with Boston rebuffing offers. But this time, it was the Celtics who were actively trying to trade Brown. 

While understandable to most on the outside for Boston to put up their best possible offer to try to land Antetokounmpo, for a player who has made it clear he believes he’s the best two-way player in the world, Brown may have taken that as a slap in the face.

“Somewhat grateful, because I get to see some negativity that I didn’t want. But that just gives more fuel to the fire,” Brown said on a stream. “I see some comments, or takes, that I didn’t even care to see, but it just gives me more fuel to the fire. To all the people who have doubted me, that want me to do this or want me gone, you’re turning me into a monster.”

What we don’t know is what the conversations between Stevens and Brown were like before and after those trade talks. If this trade is any indication, it seems like a pretty educated guess that they went poorly. The Celtics quickly pivoted from an understandable pursuit of Antetokounmpo to shopping Brown to any team that would listen. That’s not something you often do with a player who just finished sixth in MVP voting. Somewhere along the way, though, the two sides must have reached a point where they knew it was time to part ways. 

Boston was a beacon of great organizational operation for a decade, but the mismanagement of the relationship with Brown felt sloppier than anything we’ve seen in Stevens’ tenure in charge — both as coach and as president. A team that once seemed destined for a long runway of contention faces serious questions. 

The Celtics will enter the 2026-27 season with a lot of uncertainty. And with the New York Knicks fresh off a title, Antetokounmpo joining the Miami Heat, Kawhi Leonard back with the Toronto Raptors and now Brown in Philadelphia, Boston’s place in that hierarchy is unclear. 

We’ll wait to learn the exact details of what fractured the relationship between star and team, but Brown’s departure is a wound that won’t heal quickly. 

The Boston Celtics are trading Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Paul George, two first-round picks (2028 and 2031) and two second-round picks (2028 and 2030), according to ESPN. The 2028 first-rounder could convert from a first to a pick swap that is more favorable to the Celtics, while the 2031 pick is unprotected. 

The stunning deal marks the end of Brown’s enormously successful 10-season run in Boston. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft made five All-Star teams with the Celtics. He averaged at least 20 points for seven consecutive seasons, took the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals six times, the NBA Finals twice, and won Finals MVP as Boston won its 18th NBA championship in 2024. Now, he will continue his career in a rival city alongside a core of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. 

Brown played alongside Jayson Tatum since Boston drafted the latter in 2017, but rumors about the Celtics splitting up the pair were common for much of their run together. The Celtics were linked to superstars like Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant over the years, but never pulled the trigger on a trade for Brown during his joint ascent with Tatum. The Celtics were rewarded for that faith with the 2024 title, but things slowly broke down from there.

Tatum tore his Achilles during Boston’s title defense in 2025, and he missed most of the 2025-26 season. With Tatum sidelined, Brown had the best statistical season of his career in leading the Celtics to 56 wins, but Boston blew a 3-1 lead and lost Game 7 of its first-round series against the 76ers with Tatum out. That series exposed holes in Boston’s roster that would be hard to address with both Tatum and Brown earning supermax salaries in this enormously restrictive CBA environment.

Brown responded by venting on Twitch after the Celtics were eliminated, claiming the NBA had an agenda against him. Perhaps just as notably, he called this season his “favorite year” of his basketball career rather than the 2024 title season. The Celtics, meanwhile, spent most of June negotiating a trade of Brown to the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo. When Antetokounmpo was ultimately dealt to the Miami Heat, Boston elected to move on from Brown anyway, sending him to Philadelphia in a shocker.

For much of the past two years, Philadelphia’s destiny was tied to two aging and injury-prone players. George has played just 78 regular-season games over two seasons with the 76ers, and he is entering his age-36 season. Coupled with the frequent absences of Embiid, Philadelphia appeared to be stuck with two supermax contracts that were aging badly.

But George, following a 25-game suspension, returned to finish out the season strong. He averaged an efficient 17.4 points per game in the playoff series win over the Celtics, and now, he’s headed to Boston to serve as their Brown replacement. With Brown only 29 years old, the 76ers have improved at the forward spot with a player six years younger than the one that they sent out. 

Now, if Embiid can only stay healthy, the 76ers have a real path to genuine championship contention in a crowded Eastern Conference. Let’s grade the trade.

Philadelphia 76ers: A+

Landing Brown while moving off George’s contract? An outright steal

When I ranked the worst contracts in the NBA in March, George, making supermax money ($54.1 million) for the next two seasons, ranked No. 5. At the time, that was a fairly common sentiment. He was out at that point due to a 25-game PED suspension, but even before that, he was inefficiently averaging a pretty modest 16.2 points per game and had far less defensive impact than at his peak. A good player, but a severely overpaid one whose 36th birthday was looming. The assumption was that Philadelphia would have to attach draft capital to move off of his contract.

What changed after that? He returned from that suspension and played 10 nearly star-level regular-season games. He was fantastic in the playoffs, making nearly half of his 3-pointers and turning back the defensive clock against the Celtics. Essentially, in 21 games, George went from immovable to the only player involved in a trade for Brown. For a brief, fleeting moment, another team considered George to be a positive-value asset, or at least not so overwhelmingly negative that he would impede a trade like this. Was it just shooting variance? Did the 25-game rest revive him? It just seems hard to imagine that a 36-year-old could turn the clock back like that in any sort of permanent way.

Brown is coming off a Second-Team All-NBA season. There is a credible reason to believe that the season was fool’s gold. Brown shot just under 51% on mid-range shots and just under 71% on restricted area shots from October through December. That’s around the point at which some people tried to nudge him into an MVP conversation he really never should have been a part of. After Jan. 1, he fell back down to earth, falling to around 41% on mid-range jumpers and 69% in the restricted area. He is not, in fact, a Kevin Durant-level individual scorer. But the 76ers did not pay a Durant-level price.

Advertisement

Any concerns about analytics, about unsustainable shooting, lackadaisical off-ball defense or years of on-off data suggesting the Celtics were just fine without Brown, fly out the window at this price. Two first-round picks. Two good first-round picks, to be fair, especially the 2028 pick that will reportedly be the better of the 76ers’ or the Los Angeles Clippers’ selections. But two picks nonetheless. That’s all it took for Philadelphia to turn an inferior, 36-year-old small forward into a superior one going into his age-30 season. 

So Brown isn’t really a Second-Team All-NBA player. Who cares? He won’t need to be in Philadelphia. For all of these years, we’ve talked about the possibility of Brown getting traded so he could lead his own team. On the 76ers, there will be nights in which he’s the leading scorer and there will be nights in which he finishes fourth. To get a reliable, in-his-prime All-Star for two picks and what we’ve been treating as one of the NBA’s worst contracts is an outright steal. Brown has never missed more than 19 games in a season. George has missed more time in six of the past seven.

That youth and durability change a lot for Philadelphia. With Brown, Maxey and Edgecombe, the 76ers have so much shot creation that they can afford to be as cautious as humanly possible with Embiid. The name of the game, as we saw in the Boston series, is getting him into the playoffs healthy and then through the playoffs in one piece. He swung the series that we can now say broke up the Celtics. His workload has never been lighter than it is now.

Brown is eligible to extend with Philadelphia. Even if he tacks on the maximum two years, his deal will still expire after his age-34 season. George’s tenure in Philadelphia began in his age-34 season. That’s how substantial the age gap here is. Brown should remain a productive player for a long time, but even as he starts to slip, the younger Edgecombe is in place to grow into a bigger role. Edgecombe, who turns 21 this month, won’t be paid market value for three more years, and Embiid’s contract expires at that point. Philadelphia should be able to keep this group together at least that long, and potentially longer.

There are definite questions on the roster. The signing of Dean Wade addressed on-ball defense, and Brown will to some extent as well, but they’re still lacking on that end of the floor. The mere fact of paying Brown, Embiid and Maxey the max makes paying role players nearly impossible. The sixth-highest paid 76ers player right now is No. 22 overall pick Labaron Philon. They still have work to do.

But we can’t overthink this one. Two first-round picks should not be able to turn a bad contract into an All-NBA six years his junior. No matter what concerns you might have about Brown, he is a substantial upgrade on George. This is among the biggest trade no-brainers in recent history.

Boston Celtics: D-

A baffling move for Boston on multiple levels

Unless you’re treating George as a genuinely positive trade asset, Walker Kessler got traded for more than Brown on Wednesday. The Utah Jazz, at least, managed to extract two first-round swaps from the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics couldn’t even do that much with the 76ers. 

It’s not even clear that they got Philadelphia’s best available draft pick. That 2028 selection headed to Boston, reportedly the more favorable of the 76ers and Clippers, is great on paper. That’s especially true in the lottery reform era, where any pick has a chance to wildly outperform expectations. But the 2028 NBA Draft is regarded as relatively weak at this point. There’s a reason so many teams trading big-name players this offseason are targeting picks deep in the 2030s. Not only are the next few drafts considered underwhelming, but the new lottery reform rules expire after 2029, so there’s value in the uncertainty that will follow. Boston got one such pick in 2031. It did not get Philadelphia’s 2033 selection, arguably the best of the bunch for an executive with the sort of job security Brad Stevens has.

Advertisement

The theory of trading Brown in the first place, unless there was unresolvable tension behind the scenes, seemingly related to his contract. Both he and Tatum are making supermax money. Having two players make 35% of the salary cap every year puts an almost impossible strain on your depth. When the Celtics pursued Antetokounmpo, part of the idea was that a 35% max salary was justifiable for an MVP candidate who provided the exact rim-pressuring skills their team was lacking. George is not an MVP candidate. He does not have the exact skill set the Celtics were lacking. He is also making supermax money, just on a contract that is one year shorter.

Brown’s value can’t have fallen that far, could it? And if so, were there not better offers out there? The Cleveland Cavaliers are trying to convince LeBron James to return for a minimum salary right now. Cleveland could’ve offered similar draft compensation, but with Jarrett Allen attached to solve Boston’s center problem. Reports have suggested that neither the Houston Rockets nor Charlotte Hornets, both coached by former members of Boston’s staff, were interested in Brown. They are both so asset-rich that either could have topped this price without really disturbing their long-term plans. 

Is there a follow-up move that makes this make sense? The Celtics still have a $27.7 million trade exception, but after signing Mitchell Robinson, they don’t have the first-apron hard cap flexibility they’ll need to take advantage of it without moving off more salary. Two first-round picks are valuable trade chips, but the Celtics still control most of their own picks moving forward. If they’re planning to shoot for, say, Trey Murphy III, you’d figure they already had the draft capital to get him. Maybe they’re planning to spend their own picks elsewhere and just didn’t want to leave themselves completely bankrupt in terms of remaining draft capital? Maybe the situation behind closed doors was just bad enough that they had to take what they could get? We may never know.

But on paper, the easiest comparison here is the disastrous Luka Dončić trade the Dallas Mavericks made in 2025. The Celtics traded the better and younger player for an older, worse one, with minimal draft capital attached. Brown is not as valuable as Dončić, but the same six-year age gap applies. The Celtics did not get meaningfully cheaper in the deal. They didn’t even steal a Max Christie-esque role player.

Every fiber of my being wants to give this trade an “F.” It is, by all reasonable logic, an “F” trade. But the Celtics have been so undeniably competent for so many years that I have to believe there is more to this trade than we currently appreciate. We’re talking about a team that won a championship with Brown two summers ago. They’ve made six Eastern Conference Finals since drafting Brown and won 56 games with him leading the team a season ago.

Whether there were interpersonal dynamics we don’t understand, the market was truly this barren, or if there’s another move coming that makes a bit more sense of the situation, the Celtics have earned just enough benefit of the doubt to believe there’s a better explanation for this trade than we see in this moment. 

But on paper, this is a catastrophe. 

The Celtics got older and worse without getting meaningfully cheaper or overwhelmingly richer in draft capital. A Brown trade made sense if it was going to net Antetokounmpo or a picks-and-depth bonanza. But at this price point, it’s just hard to justify giving Brown away rather than simply keeping him.

Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) reacts to a call during Game 2 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series vs Philadelphia 76ers, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The Boston Celtics will send star forward Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for veteran Paul George in a blockbuster NBA trade, ESPN reported Wednesday.

Boston will also receive two first-round draft picks and two second-round picks in the deal.

READ: NBA: Jaylen Brown’s future with Boston Celtics remains murky

The news emerged on the first full day of the NBA’s free agency negotiating period, but days after reports that Brown had been mentioned as part of a trade package for Giannis Antetokounmpo — who was traded from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Miami Heat.

The 29-year-old Brown reached the playoffs in each of his 10 seasons in Boston, including six appearances in the Eastern Conference finals and two NBA Finals appearances.

He was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player in the Celtics 2024 championship run, coming off the best individual season of his career.

He averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game in 2025-26 as the Celtics claimed the second seed in the Eastern Conference, but they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the 76ers.

His outstanding play saw the Celtics defy predictions they would tread water with Jayson Tatum sidelined as he recovered from an Achilles injury.

Belgium’s Youri Tielemans (8) celebrates after scoring during the World Cup Round of 32 match against Senegal. (AP Photo)

Belgium produced one of the greatest escapes of the FIFA World Cup 2026, overturning a two-goal deficit with three late goals — including the latest goal in World Cup history — to beat Senegal 3-2 after extra time and storm into the Round of 16 on Wednesday.Just moments away from elimination, the Red Devils mounted an extraordinary fightback, with substitute Romelu Lukaku igniting the comeback before Youri Tielemans struck twice, including a dramatic penalty deep into stoppage time of extra time to send Belgium through.The victory also marked only the second time in the last 11 FIFA World Cups that a team trailing by two or more goals in a knockout match recovered to advance. Ironically, Belgium were responsible for the other such comeback too, when they rallied from 2-0 down to beat Japan 3-2 in the 2018 Round of 16.

Tielemans’ historic penalty completes stunning turnaround

Belgium looked destined for a shock exit after Senegal dominated much of the contest.Habib Diarra opened the scoring in the 25th minute before Ismaila Sarr doubled Senegal’s advantage six minutes into the second half with one of the goals of the tournament. Sarr controlled Moussa Niakhate’s long pass with a brilliant first touch before calmly beating veteran goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to make it 2-0.Courtois then kept Belgium alive with a string of crucial saves as Senegal threatened to put the contest beyond doubt.Belgium’s revival finally began in the 86th minute when all-time leading scorer Romelu Lukaku, introduced from the bench, pulled one back.Just three minutes later, Youri Tielemans fired home the equaliser in the 89th minute to stun Senegal and force extra time.With a penalty shootout only seconds away, Tielemans was brought down inside the box in the dying moments of extra time. Following a VAR review, the referee pointed to the spot.The Belgian midfielder calmly converted in the fifth minute of stoppage time in extra time, scoring the latest goal in FIFA World Cup history and completing one of the competition’s most remarkable knockout comebacks.

Senegal left heartbroken after VAR drama

Senegal’s players were left devastated after seeing victory slip away in dramatic fashion.Coach Pape Thiaw chose not to criticise the decisive penalty decision.“I do not want to interpret the decision. We all have different interpretations when it comes to awarding a penalty,” Thiaw said. “I’d rather not comment, not interpreting the referee’s decision,” he said.The Senegal players surrounded the referee after the award, with defender Pathe Ciss even lying on top of the penalty spot in protest before eventually moving aside for the kick.Reflecting on the collapse, Thiaw admitted Belgium capitalised when it mattered most.“It is a cruel loss, as we were good in the game. We had the advantage. We were leading 2-0. However a football match is not an 85-minute one. Belgium came back, and we were not able to deal with that … We must congratulate Belgium as they progress,” he said.He also explained his team’s reaction to the decisive VAR call.“Well, when the penalty was awarded, we had our own interpretation. We believed that there was no penalty. The players tried to challenge the decision. It’s their right. And, then the penalty was taken. And, this is why we were eliminated,” he added.