Jaylen Brown, Celtics angry after Grant Williams' hard foul on Jayson Tatum

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Whatever love there is between the Boston Celtics and Grant Williams disappeared, at least temporarily, late in the fourth quarter Friday night. After Williams was ejected for a hard foul on Jayson Tatum with 2:02 left in the Celtics' 124-109 win over the Hornets, Jaylen Brown reached out to his former teammate to let him know he was upset about the excessive Contact was annoying.

Williams later described the extent of his foul as unintentional, but Brown saw the play very differently. He said he told Williams, “That was bullshit.”

“It was definitely intentional,” Brown said. “What are we talking about here? Have you all seen the same play as me? He hit him like it was a football game, like Ray Lewis was coming up the middle or something. It is what it is. Grant knows better.”

Williams said he tried to pass the ball in transition. He said he believed the foul looked worse because he hit Tatum while passing, and that the foul wouldn't have been as harsh “if (Tatum) had prepared and actually turned his head to the left” while Williams was chasing him .

“It was just a hard foul,” Williams said. “And we play against them again tomorrow. It's nothing crazy or unbearable. We all know JT is my type, so nothing on purpose.”

The Celtics players didn't believe Williams' claim that the foul wasn't intentional. How much did his offense bother his former team? Tatum, who normally fulfills his media duties when called upon to speak, declined to answer questions from the small group of reporters in Charlotte. Brown, who played alongside Williams for four seasons, even went so far as to question his former teammate's friendship with Tatum. Williams called Tatum one of his closest friends in the NBA.

“Actions speak loudly,” Brown said. “So it is what it is. We got the win, we're moving forward, but there's no room for that in the game. I thought JT and him were friends. I do not think so.”

Grant Williams called Jayson Tatum one of his closest friends in basketball. (Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

Did Brown say that as a joke? Perhaps. But he was so upset after the apparent 2 foul that assistant coach Tony Dobbins felt the need to go far up the court to get in front of Brown and make sure he didn't escalate the situation. The Celtics players took the incident seriously. Neemias Queta, who was standing near Williams at the time of the game, said the foul was “not cool at all.” Derrick White agreed with his teammates that Williams “obviously wasn’t going for the ball.”

“He’s just too big to do something like that,” White said. “And he knows that. But JB always has our back. And we always know that. And we are always there for JTs.”

In an interview with NBC Sports Boston's Kayla Burton, Williams indicated that he had originally planned to host some of the Celtics players at his home in Charlotte after Friday's game, but assumed they would not accept the invitation , after tempers flared on the pitch. With another matchup between the two teams Saturday in Charlotte, the schedule would have afforded the players a rare opportunity to hang out with each other after the game… if they wanted to.

As usual, the Celtics had a lot of friendly games with Williams before the game. He was hesitant to fully join in their shooting Friday morning, but interrupted White's latest routine — a game of baseball catch — to share a quality moment with his former teammate near the Spectrum Center court. Williams and Brown hugged and briefly played rock, paper, scissors when they spotted each other before the game.

Grant Williams greets Jaylen Brown and immediately beats him in a game of rock-paper-scissors, lol pic.twitter.com/m8eRdLg90Z

— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) November 1, 2024

Much of Friday felt like a reunion, and not just for Williams and his former team. Charles Lee, the Hornets' head coach, served as an assistant to Joe Mazzulla last season. Several Celtics players expressed how excited they were that Lee got the chance to lead his own team. Sam Hauser called Lee “honestly: one of the nicest guys in the world.”

During one season with the Celtics, Lee made his mark on the team. Mazzulla said the coach was instrumental in Jrue Holiday's adjustment to Boston; Having a familiar face around helped Holiday adjust to his new surroundings after a stunning trade from Milwaukee just before the start of last season. Before joining the Celtics staff, Lee worked closely with Holiday as a Bucks assistant.

Holiday said he always advocated for the 39-year-old Lee when other teams inquired about a possible head coaching job. Interestingly, considering Lee coaches basketball, Holiday's strongest support for him wasn't about the sport itself. Holiday emphasized everything else about the coach.

“Honestly, he’s a great person,” Holiday said. “He is a family man. You have seen him in several organizations and he is loved in several organizations. He is loved by players across the league. I feel like he's a family man and my family is very close to him, so maybe I'm biased. But I think that environment that benefits an organization means a lot.”

There was pure love between the Celtics and Hornets before the opener. Tatum rarely stops his practice during the morning shootaround, but he had a good reason to do so on Friday. Kemba Walker, Tatum's teammate in Boston for two seasons, had come onto the court to say hello to some old friends. Near the halfcourt logo, Tatum briefly stopped his practice to hug his buddy.

It's not normal for an opposing coach to show up at a team's shootaround, but Walker isn't a normal opposing coach. Furthermore, the circumstances were there for it. The Hornets, whose coaching staff he joined in July after announcing his retirement as a player, had just finished their own shootout on another court at the Spectrum Center. Although his time in Boston didn't last long, Walker remains popular within the organization. Celtics players and staff beamed when they saw him. He bounced from one person to the next, hugging everyone he could meet on the court and giving them his trademark smile. Then, before he left, he announced his ambitious plans for the night.

“We’re going to bust your ass,” Walker said.

It was just a friendly joke. For the Celtics, Williams' actions crossed the line. From playing with and against him, they know that his physicality can sometimes border on excessive. Before facing him for the first time in January of last season, when Williams was still playing for the Mavericks, Brown said he loved Williams but expected him to play “an annoying game.” After the Celtics beat Dallas, Brown said he thought Williams was “a little extra” on some plays during the game. Brown said he expected some of this from Williams and that “Grant would try to be Grant.”

“But it’s all love,” Brown said at the time. “I know he tries to help his team win, so he has done that for them a lot this season. This is how he made a name for himself. And I wish him all the best. I'm sure they'll need a little more of that as their season progresses. So I think Grant was just trying to get his team going. That’s all.”

The Celtics didn't have the same tone on Friday. They were upset with the way Williams turned right into Tatum. At least so soon after the play, they weren't ready to give it up.

However, they liked how they gathered around each other after the hard contact. Mazzulla said what he liked best was that after the foul, Tatum immediately jumped up and went straight to the free throw line to do his business.

“It didn’t really bother him,” Mazzulla said.

The Celtics coach also appreciated the way Brown defended Tatum and how the team maintained its poise after the game.

“As long as we have each other’s backs,” Mazzulla said, “that’s all that matters.”

Brown, who agreed with his coach that the Celtics handled the moment well, said a play like that “brings out the depth of our team that we need.” He said the teams needed “a little edge,” “a little contention,” and “a little fight.” He said he welcomes such testing.

“First of all, it’s us against the world,” Brown said. “As a leader, like everyone else on my side, I drive for all my guys in the locker room. Teams like to send messages. They try to set the tone and do all sorts of things to either throw us out of character or mess with our minds or make us feel soft or whatever the case may be. We won't do any of that. That's it: we just don't do it. That’s all I would say.”

Even if the hard foul comes from an old friend.

(Top photo of Grant Williams fouling Jayson Tatum late in the fourth quarter: Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)