Jaylen Brown wasn’t going to give Grant Williams a pass for his takedown of Jayson Tatum.

Williams, who played four seasons with Brown and Tatum in Boston, was ejected from the Celtics-Hornets game on Friday night after knocking Tatum to the ground with a hard shoulder check.

Tatum avoided injury and the Celtics ultimately won 124-109, but Brown took a dig at his former teammate during his post-game press conference.

“I don’t know what that was about,” Brown told reporters in Charlotte. “I think that spoke for itself. I don’t know if Grant missed JT or I don’t know what that was, but that just wasn’t a basketball play. Grant knows better than that.’

He added: “Actions speak loudly. It is what it is, we got the win, but there is no place for that in the game. I thought JT and Grant were friends. I don’t think so.”

Brown called Williams’ hard foul “some (BS).” He believed it was “definitely intentional.”

“What are we talking about? Are you all seeing the same play I saw?’ Brown told reporters. “He hit him like it was a football match, like Ray Lewis coming down the middle or something. It is what it is. Grant knows better than that.’

Williams claimed that he wasn’t trying to make a mistake on purpose Tatum.

“I think it was more him not seeing me more than anything,” the Hornets forward told Kayla Burton of NBC Sports Boston. “Like I’m reaching, and I definitely made contact with the body before I reached it. Probably a hard foul; certainly not intentionally. I’m not trying to hurt him in any way. We all know this is one of my best friends in the league.”

In an unfortunate twist, Williams had made plans to host some of his former Celtics teammates for dinner after the game. His body check on Tatum ruined that one.

“I guess most of those guys aren’t coming to dinner tonight,” Williams told Burton. “…I had wings and stuff prepared, so it’s kind of funny that it says, ‘Well, the game ended like this.'”

Referee James Williams determined that Grant Williams “increased his speed prior to contact” and “made significant contact with the dribbler.”

“The acceleration is considered a liquidation, the impact was significant and there was a potential for injury, so it was determined to be unnecessary and excessive, earning us a flagrant foul penalty of 2,” the official said in a pool report. “Again, this is generally an automatic removal from the game.”

The Hornets were called for two flagrant fouls and one unsportsmanlike technical foul in the closing minutes of Friday’s game, with Miles Bridges also ejected for hitting the ball after the whistle. Head coaches Joe Mazzulla and Charles Lee were both ahead in the fourth quarter as well, as Boston turned a one-point lead into a 15-point victory with eight minutes remaining.

“I drive for all my guys in the locker room, and teams like to send messages and try to set the tone and do all kinds of things to take us out of character or ruin our spirits or make us feel soft,” Brown told reporters. “We’re not going for that. That’s it. We’re just not going for that.”

The Celtics and Hornets will face off again on Saturday night in the second half of a back-to-back.

Originally published: November 1, 2024 at 10:34 PM EDT