Ailing Boston Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown was honored by the Massachusetts State Legislature on New Year’s Day for his humanitarian work with local children.
Brown, too ill to travel to Charlotte to face the Hornets the night prior, made the event honoring the fourth-year Cal-Berkeley product for his work with the Boys and Girls Club of Boston, his own Juice Foundation and the No Books No Ball program despite his less-than-optimal health.
Boston handled the Hornets handily in his absence, and the Georgia native found himself the first African-American Celtic lauded by the state legislature after state Senator Nick Collins nominated Brown for the honor, reports NBC Sports Boston’s Kwani A. Lunis.
“This is the stuff that keeps me going and motivates me and gets me out of bed even if I’m a little bit under the weather,” offered the Marietta native via NBC Sports Boston’s Patrick Dunne, alluding to the sinus infection that kept him from traveling with the team the day prior.
FULL STORY: Jaylen Brown honored at State House for charity work with Boston children https://t.co/iEQhkZ0IFJ
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Education — and improving it — have been a centerpiece for Brown’s civic engagement in Boston, both in and outside of formal school environments. The former Golden Bear referenced that work while addressing the legislature honoring him.
“Children are the ones that are paving the way for the next generation and carrying the torch, so, teaching them the right way, showing them the right values, the right way to do things, is important to me because they’re going to grow up and they’re going to be the next people to carry the throne so they’ve gotta be handled and taken care of the right way.”
Brown’s work as an MIT Media Fellow in particular has focused on education, an issue that hit home for the young entrepreneur as he himself shuttled back-and-forth between normal and advanced classes in high school.
Though he has much bigger plans for his educational vision than Boston alone, he’s looking at the place as a long-term base from which to build his philanthropic ventures.
“This is now a part of my home … I definitely want to be a part of the change in the community,” said Brown to the legislative body on Wednesday.
“I think that Boston has, over the last 10 years, has definitely come a long way and I think we’ve still got some ways to go,” he added. Given the state of public education in the United States compared to other highly-developed countries around the world, he’s not wrong.
And while Brown alone will not transform public education without much help, the recognition he’s starting to receive because of his platform should go a long way towards smoothing the path.