Jaylen Brown wants to make NBAers supporting local causes a trend

Boston Celtics star forward Jaylen Brown wants to normalize NBA players using their platforms to better their own communities.

Boston Celtics veteran forward Jaylen Brown is much more than just an athlete — and to him, that’s a badge of pride he wears with honor.

He wants to use his platform to push issues to the forefront of popular consciousness particularly when the issue at hand is an uncomfortable one with significant impacts, like race relations, the impact of educational policy on social mobility, or the risk of playing sports in the midst of a pandemic.

And according to the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn, the Cal-Berkeley product also doesn’t consider himself some sort of “new age leader” by doing so.

“I guess [being the focus] doesn’t mean as much to me as people would think,” Brown related.

True to his word, the Georgian has consistently decentered whatever issue he tries to tackle through using his platform to keep our eyes and ears focused on the topic at hand — instead of the speaker.

“I think that needs to be normalized,” he continued.

“I think that needs to be a redefinition of what a modern athlete is. Yes, we’re here to play basketball and entertain, but at the same time there’s a lot of influence and responsibility that comes with it, to be honest, especially in American sports.”

Truth be told, that responsibility is no small part of the reason why less people take stands on potentially contentious issues — they don’t want to become the center of a media circus if they say something taken out of context or that was misinformed.

An issue Brown has pointed out more than once; “I’m not a politician,” the Celtic wing observed.

“I’m not a civil rights leader or anything like that, but I do recognize that I have a platform and hopefully I can try to enhance voices that get lost in the midst of things and also enhance all these grass-roots organizations that are devoting their time, energy, and life 24/7 to this.”

“I just really want to enlarge those voices, but it’s less so about me, it’s about the cause and things we are fighting for,” he added.

“Any time I’m in front of a camera or I know people are going to see me, I always try to think of the people that’s watching in my community,” related Brown.

“I’m human. I’m young. I make mistakes. I carry myself with the regard that people are going to be watching me and I want them to know that things that are cool now, that are trends, don’t have to be trends … The cars. The lifestyle. The women. All that type of stuff is cool, but also taking care of your family, speaking on your community, helping your community, using your voice. I want that to be cool, too. Not just who you are dating on Instagram, not what kind of car you’ve got or house you’ve got. It also should be cool that you helped your community, that you started a community store in your neighborhood.”

“Those should be flexes, rather than the jewelry or the stuff that’s the norm for NBA players,” he explained.

Brown spoke at length on his motivations for believing that it is possible to advocate for tangible change beginning at the community level in Washburn’s interview with the young NBA activist.

His Hall of Fame aspirations go hand-in-hand with his desire to leave a better world in his wake on the way are part and parcel of what makes the Celtics so lucky to have him on their roster.

And for those who’d prefer him to “shut up and dribble?”

“They always want to put a camera in an athlete’s face, but they don’t want to respect when we have something to say.” Brown opined. “What’s the point of putting a camera in our face?”

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