PHILADELPHIA — Reeling from an early exit in the NBA playoffs, Jaylen Brown was still a Boston Celtics star when he dissed Joel Embiid and called him a flopper on a livestream.“Joel Embiid is a great player, one of the best bigs in (expletive) basketball history,” Brown said. “Flops. He know it. This ain’t breaking news.”Did someone say breaking news?Brown might have to make awkward amends with Embiid now that they are teammates on the 76ers in the wake of an out-of-nowhere trade that rocked the NBA and again positions Philadelphia as an instant contender for the franchise’s first NBA title since 1983.You know, because trying to win it all with a hired gun worked so well for the Sixers with Paul George. And James Harden. Or Jimmy Butler.All flops of the postseason kind in Philly.The Sixers have another superstar to pair with Embiid — and the true franchise cornerstones in All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey and second-year standout VJ Edgecombe — after new team president of basketball operations Mike Gansey pulled off a whale of a move in his first month on the job.Brown — the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league’s fourth-leading scorer this past season — is getting traded by the Boston Celtics to the Philadelphia 76ers, a person with knowledge of the deal’s terms said Wednesday.Boston is getting George, along with a slew of draft capital that could become two first-round picks and two second-round picks, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade does not yet have the required league approvals.“The nba is doing that THING AGAIN,’” Maxey wrote on social media Wednesday night.Without a game played, the Sixers are the early winners in this deal. Gansey somehow shed the two years and $110 million left on the oft injured and aging George’s deal for a bona fide superstar who was sixth in the NBA MVP voting this past season. The 36-year-old George — who was suspended 25 games for flunking a drug test — played in only 78 total games for the Sixers and has played more than 56 games in a season only one time since 2019.His contract seemed immovable.Suddenly — as they say in Boston —- anything is possible in Philadelphia.The Cel …
