Boston Celtics Players React to Anfernee Simons Trade

The Boston Celtics agreed to send Anfernee Simons to the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday, in exchange for Nikola Vucevic. Simons leaves Boston having played in all 49 Celtics games so far this season, the only member of the team to do so.

After the Celtics win over the Dallas Mavericks, guys in the locker room were asked about the trade, which is still not yet official.

Jaylen Brown: “Anfernee has all the respect in the world. For me, it's a business, but there's a human aspect to it, and since he's been here, he's contributed to winning. He's won us some games. He's just a great, great person, great kid on and off the floor, just humble. I hope he gets everything that he's looking for, just because he just fit right in with this group of guys in our locker room. He could have had different thoughts and thought differently, and his energy could have been different, and he was a great teammate and did everything he needed to do that we asked him and more and contributed to winning. So Anfernee has all the respect in the world for me, and I hope he gets everything he deserves.”

Payton Pritchard: “I love Ant. When you build a bond with a teammate, it's tough to see him leave, Like, you know, the Al Horford, the Jrue Holiday, Luke [Kornet], [Kristaps Porzingis], now Anfernee. You definitely miss them, but it's part of the business. So you wish him well, and then when you see them, you gotta go at them.”

Luka Garza: “It's still just always tough. You lose someone that was such a good dude, like Anfernee, it's always tough when a guy like that leaves the locker room. But it's just part of the business … I've been through it a couple of times now, so you kind of get used to it over time.”

Trades are tough in the NBA. Yes, guys get a lot money to do this job, but Brown is right about the human element to all of this.

Look no further than the podcast these guys all recently did. Watch how they interact over their shared experiences.

Joe Mazzulla played WAR SOUNDS like machine guns and bombs during Celtics practice 😳😳😳 pic.twitter.com/esa02zRzQz
— TheOldManAndTheThree (@OldManAndThree) February 1, 2026

Joe Mazzulla really made all of his assistant coaches run in a recent practice because they messed up a drill 💀 🚨 NEW YM3 EP WITH THE BOSTON CELTICS IS LIVE EVERYWHERE 🚨 pic.twitter.com/8ELZST2sxd
— TheOldManAndTheThree (@OldManAndThree) January 29, 2026

We can all sit here and rightfully say we’d give up things in life to make the money these guys make, but it doesn’t make every aspect of their lives roses and puppy dogs.

Simons woke up on Tuesday living in Boston, and he’ll go to bed living in Chicago, and not by choice. He has a family, and his family spent a lot of time with the other families on the team. There are children who became friends who need to hear explanations about why those friends are going away.

I’m sorry, but you can’t just throw a stack of cash at a toddler and expect them to be cool with moving all the time.

Simons might end up better off in Chicago, or wherever else the NBA road takes him. Teams are ever-evolving, so there's always a flow of fresh faces in professional locker rooms. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an initial sting involved.

We all get it. The NBA is a show.

People pay money to watch it, they applaud or they boo, and then they go home, never really caring much about anything beyond the results. The lights go on, a winner wins, a loser loses, and the lights go off.

That's how it’s supposed to be. That's the deal everyone’s made. This is the social construct. No one is asking for more.

But there is more there.