BOSTON (AP) — Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and team owner Bill Chisholm want to make one thing clear: The decision to trade perennial All-Star Jaylen Brown wasn’t arrived at lightly.
But from their perspective, it was necessary to give the franchise the flexibility it needs to compete with the changing landscape of an NBA in which managing the team’s balance sheet will be more important than retaining multiple homegrown stars with pricey contracts.
That said, Stevens said Monday that he is fully aware of the criticism that surrounds Boston’s front office in the aftermath of its stunning decision last week to trade Brown to the Celtics' division rival Philadelphia for Paul George and multiple draft picks.
“As Jaylen and I sat down in early June and we talked about potential future in Boston and elsewhere, I told him if we were ever to trade Jaylen that would be a sad day for me personally,” Stevens said. “And certainly the emotions that all of us have felt... I do think we are empathetic and understand. This is a really hard thing.”
Hard, but also what Stevens said the front office collectively deemed vital for the ability of the Celtics to compete going forward despite coming off back-to-back 50-plus win regular seasons following their 2024 NBA championship.
“The path looked a little bit more challenging to me,” Stevens said. “I might be wrong. I’m not going to stand up there and be defensive about that. But the path looked a little bit more challenging with 70% of our (salary) cap, and such a high percent of our usage tied into two players.”
Brown enters next season with more than about $185 million remaining on the then-record, five-year, $304 million contract he signed with Boston in July 2023. Had he stayed, the team would have to decide whether to give him a two-year extension of around another $140 million.
That, combined with the almost $190 million left on Jayson Tatum’s $314 million deal, was deemed too much for the Celtics to carry and maintain roster flexibility.
George will make $54 million this coming season, which combined with Jayson Tatum’s $58 million will constitute about 70% of the Celtics’ salary cap in 2026-27.
With George having only one season and a player option remaining after that, Stevens said the future flexibility and draft compensation is what they value.
Additionally, Chisholm was adamant that there was no directive from him about keeping the salary cap at a certain level.
“This was all about basically trying to win, and really trusting in our process,” Chisholm said.
Stevens also defended against a sentiment that the trade return, which includes two first-round picks and two second-round picks, was low.
In George, the Celtics get back a six-time All-NBA and nine-time All-Star wing, but a player who has played 50 or more games just three times since 2019 (74 in 2023-24) due to various injuries.
“We like Paul. Paul’s a really good player,” Stevens said. “We’re not very far removed from all sitting, in our series against Philadelphia and watching Paul be a guy that could carry you...but also play a complementary role on both ends of the floor at the highest of levels."
Stevens spent a fair portion of Monday’s news conference pushing back on the suggestion by Brown that he was kept in the dark about the Celtics’ plans.
In a statement posted on his social media platforms after the trade became public, Brown said he had mixed emotions after the 2024 NBA Finals MVP learned he was being dealt away from the only NBA team he’s known.
That night he took to the streaming platform Twitch to elaborate on what he described as a lack of communication at points during the trade process.
“I wasn’t thrilled with how the conversation was facilitated. I did feel like it was a lack of respect,” Brown said. “At one point it was fine, and then out of nowhere it just went left. I definitely think there’s more to it."
Stevens said that he didn’t feel the team’s relationship with Brown was irreparable even after initially including Brown in a failed trade offer to Milwaukee for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“I will say we had several talks. If he feels that way, then I’m sorry about that,” Stevens said.
Along with ending Brown’s 10-year tenure in Boston, it also ends the nine-year partnership between Brown and Tatum, who played in seven conference finals and two NBA Finals together – ultimately propelling team to the 2024 title.
Tatum celebrated the duo in an Instagram post in the days after Brown’s trade.
“From first round exits to winning a champ together and respect for you as a player and as a person,” Tatum wrote.
Stevens said Tatum was not consulted about the decision to ultimately trade Brown.
“I know how little I sleep. I don’t think anybody else needs to feel that,” Stevens said.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
FILE - Boston Celtics' Jaylen Brown plays during Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoff series Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum,File)
FILE - Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown (7) drives to the basket against Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, right, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa,File)
FILE - Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) drives to the basket against Philadelphia 76ers forward Paul George (8) during the first half of Game 2 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series, April 21, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A motorist was arrested on suspicion of murder charges after authorities say she slammed her SUV into a city bus in Los Angeles, killing at least two people and injuring six others in a prelude to a second deadly tragedy: the fiery crash of a TV news helicopter used by NBC and Telemundo that was covering the collision.
Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, of Simi Valley, was arrested Monday night and is being held at a Los Angeles jail with bail set at $4 million, police said. Information on a lawyer who could speak on her behalf wasn’t immediately available.
NBC4 Los Angeles reported that two people aboard the helicopter — reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw — were killed when the chopper went down Tuesday in the Chatsworth neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley north of downtown. A person on the ground, identified as 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, died in a parking lot, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office said.
The crash happened as news crews were reporting on the collision involving an SUV that slammed into the bus.
There were no immediate details on what caused the helicopter crash, but an alarm could be heard sounding inside the helicopter's cockpit as it lost altitude in the final seconds of video the crew broadcast before the crash.
Just after the beeping noise starts, a woman’s voice says “uh oh.” The helicopter moves quickly away from the bus crash site and starts losing altitude. The woman says “You can’t pull up?” before the video stops as the chopper nears the ground.
The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350, went down near a large storage facility. At least four cars and two storage containers burned after the helicopter caught fire. NBC4 reporter Robert Kovacik was at the bus scene and saw black smoke and rushed to the helicopter crash site.
The station identified the helicopter crash victims as Moreno, a familiar voice for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 during the station’s aerial coverage, and Marciniw. Both were employees of Angel City Air, which operated the chopper for the station.
Moreno, born in Orange County, joined Angel City Air in 2010, the same year she earned a broadcast journalism and political science degree from Chapman University. She reported for several news outlets and began flying with Marciniw in 2023, the NBC4 website said.
Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.
“I think a lot of us are still trying to process what happened, this terrible loss,” NBC4 reporter Lauren Coronado told viewers early Wednesday as she stood near the crash site. A hazmat crew was cleaning up jet fuel, she said.
In a tribute to Moreno and Marciniw, the newscast referred to them as “the team in the sky,” saying Moreno would often post videos from her job and was in awe of the view. Anchor Lynette Romero held a colleague’s hand and wiped away tears after hearing Moreno’s voice when one of her posts was played.
In an interview with the station, Esteban Jimenez, a pilot, said he had known Marciniw since the 1990s. He said Marciniw had been his instructor.
“I just talked to him on Sunday. We were talking about the aviation business and retiring,” he said.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said the alarm sounding in the helicopter’s final video sounds like the low rotor RPM warning horn that signals the main rotor is no longer spinning enough to keep the helicopter in the air.
“It just has all the earmarks of a potential loss of engine power and a dangerous decrease in the main rotor speed,” said Guzzetti who used to investigate crashes for both the NTSB and FAA.
Guzzetti said the pilot appeared to be trying to perform an emergency maneuver to use the wind to force the rotor to spin again much like a breeze turns a windmill. Doing that can create a bit of lift that could help cushion the impact, but Guzzetti said there would have been little opportunity to do that because the helicopter had been hovering at a low altitude beforehand.
There are risks to news helicopters particularly in a major city like Los Angeles where multiple helicopters respond to an incident, but the pilots all coordinate closely over the radio to ensure they maintain a safe distance from each other. The industry also shares best practices to help keep these news flights safe.
“It’s a very unique form of flying. And the community is very good about lessons learned," Guzzetti said. “And so because of that, you don’t hear about too many of those accidents. So they’re rare, but they do occur, just because the mission is a risky one.”
NBC4 and Telemundo 52 Los Angeles said in a statement they “are deeply saddened” and extended “heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives.”
“Losing five Angelenos is very painful,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. “And I know this community of Chatsworth, hit hard, will be grieving for some time.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked the emergency crews responding to both crashes and said in a post on X that “our hearts are with the victims and families.”
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration said personnel will arrive Wednesday to begin an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash.
The station said this is the second aviation tragedy in its history.
In 1977, a KNBC news helicopter crashed when it ran out of fuel while returning to the station after covering a wildfire in Santa Barbara, killing the pilot and camera operator. The pilot, former U.S. Air Force officer Francis Gary Powers, had been in the news years earlier when he was shot down and captured while flying a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union for the CIA, an ordeal portrayed in the movie “Bridge of Spies.”
There have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the U.S. since 2000, killing 16 people, according to a review of federal accident records and news accounts. They include a 2023 crash in a New Jersey forest that killed the pilot and a photographer aboard a helicopter used by Philadelphia station WPVI and a 2022 crash beside a Charlotte, North Carolina, interstate that killed a pilot and meteorologist during a training flight for WBTV.
This story has been updated to correct that Marciniw, not Moreno, graduated from Burbank High School and to correct the spelling of Jeff Guzzetti's last name.
Golden reported from Seattle. AP Transportation Writer Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.
In this aerial view, people investigate the aftermath of a news helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026.(AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
A police officer works the scene after a helicopter crashed near a bus crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An aerial view of the aftermath of a news helicopter that crashed in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An aerial view of the aftermath of a news helicopter that crashed in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An aerial view of the aftermath of a news helicopter that crashed in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass attends a news conference at the scene of a helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
First responders work the scene after a helicopter crashed near a bus crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass joined by other officials walk to a news conference near the scene of a helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Two people hug each other behind police lines at the scene of a helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass talks during a news conference at the scene after a helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
In this still image provided by KABC-TV shows first responders work the scene after a helicopter crashed near a bus crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (KABC-TV via AP)
In this still image provided by KABC-TV shows First responders work the scene after a helicopter crashed near a bus crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (KABC-TV via AP)
In this still image provided by KABC-TV shows firefighters respond to a deadly bus crash, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (KABC-TV via AP)
In this still image provided by KABC-TV shows a helicopter that crashed near a deadly bus crash, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (KABC-TV via AP)
First responders work the scene after a helicopter crashed near a bus crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
