OKC coach Billy Donovan tells his side of criticism of Jaylen Brown

Jaylen Brown credited criticism from OKC Thunder coach Billy Donovan as a motivator when he was still a high school prospect; Donovan told his side Friday.

Boston Celtics star shooting guard Jaylen Brown credited Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan with igniting a fire under him to push harder in his play early this summer, and, speaking at his Disney restart media availability ahead of the scrimmage between the Thunder and the Celtics, Donovan opened up about his side of the story.

The Thunder coach had been at the helm of the USA Basketball Under-18 team while he was still coaching at the University of Florida, and called out Brown for his effort level, suggesting the then-prospect would be out of the league in three seasons because he played without his full effort.

The future Cal-Berkeley product would take that dressing-down to heart, helping to fuel his ascent as a top prospect with the memory of those words.

“I think that when we first started playing, the group as tryouts were taking place,” related Donovan. “He was clearly if not the best — certainly, top one, two or three most talented guys there.”

“I think he was somebody in my opinion that had unbelievable talent, unbelievable ability. But I was trying to get him to understand just how hard he had to play and compete because I thought the playing hard to competing with take his game to a different level because of his just overall talent, and I only had those guys for a few weeks.”

“During those few weeks, you try to coach those guys and give them everything you can to help them moving forward in terms of their career or their future,” the OKC coach added.

As a borderline All-Star who inked a near-max extension going into the fourth year of his career, it’s safe to say those words were taken to heart by Brown.

Donovan agrees; “Jalen is obviously done incredibly well — I always really liked him as a person. I thought he’s a great guy. I enjoyed finding out a little bit more about his family,” he offered.

“We recruited him a little bit, not a lot, but I just felt like he had so much upside with his talent that I would say it’s a lot of times you don’t want to have talent be necessarily a curse to you. And I think he’s developed into a great worker, from everything you hear.”

“I don’t know what kind of impact I did or did not have,” Donovan was sure to note, “but I tried to with all those guys just be as honest as I could, and try to help all of them.”

While the vast majority of what got Brown to where he is today has been the hard work and natural talent he possesses, it never hurts to hear a little withering criticism if it is accurate, honest, and intended to help.

And Donovan was three for three in that regard.

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