Wyc Grousbeck shared he peeked at ‘the Philly message boards’ following Celtics’ trade for Jaden Springer

Grousbeck liked the reactions he saw from 76ers fans online.

Jaden Springer's trade to the Celtics caught some off guard as the 76ers gave up on the 2021 first-round pick. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

By Conor Roche

April 14, 2024

2 minutes to read

You never know who might be reading your comments on the internet.

Wyc Grousbeck revealed that he’s a bit of a message board lurker himself. Following the team’s trade deadline acquisition of Jaden Springer, the Celtics owner shared that he went online to check out how 76ers fans reacted to trading the forward to a division rival.

“What I did, when he traded for him, I looked at the Philly message boards and the fans were really quite upset,” Grousbeck said of Springer while appearing on NBC Sports Boston’s broadcast of Sunday’s Celtics-Wizards game. “Under the comments, they didn’t really want to see him go.”

Grousbeck added that Springer “has a lot of energy,” while Brian Scalabrine believed that Springer “might have slipped through the cracks” in Philadelphia.

“A lot of coaches on the staff are really impressed by him,” Scalabrine added.

The 76ers’ decision to move on from Springer came at a relatively unusual time and seemed to catch some off guard. The 2021 first-round pick still had another year left on his contract and the Celtics only gave up a 2024 second-round pick to acquire him.

But Springer also struggled to crack the 76ers’ rotation over his three seasons with the team, playing in just 50 games in his two-plus seasons in Philadelphia. While Springer did play in 32 games this season before getting traded, 76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey was pretty blunt in his reasoning in why he thought trading him was the right move.

“We had to look at, what are the odds Jaden Springer — who I think has a great future — helps our playoff rotation in the one, two, three-year horizon,” Morey told reporters in February. “And what are the odds a second-round pick helps us? And we thought the second-round pick helped us more. And that’s just the reality, it allows us to maybe get a veteran at next year’s deadline, things like that.

“We did it. It sucks. Jaden’s going to be really good, I think. I think his timetable is a little pushed out, though. Our evaluation was that his timetable to help a playoff team is farther than what the second-round pick can do for us.”

Springer said he wasn’t “really worried” about Morey’s comments, but the trade was also a surprise to him.

“I was kind of surprised a little bit. It caught me off guard,” The 21-year-old told reporters in February. “But I’m OK with the decision they made. It’s fine with me. I’m happy to be here.”

Prior to Sunday’s regular-season finale, Springer averaged 1.8 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 0.5 steals in 6.9 minutes per game over 16 appearances with the Celtics. Springer scored seven points on 2-of-4 shooting with three steals in 20 minutes off the bench in the Celtics’ win over the Wizards on Sunday.