Boston Celtics fourth-year shooting guard Jaylen Brown appeared on the most recent of ESPN’s Woj Pod, hosted by Adrian Wojnarowski, Monday.
Fourth-year wing and All-Star hopeful Jaylen Brown made an appearance Monday on ESPN’s Woj Pod, a popular podcast hosted by analyst Adrian Wojnarowski, speaking on a wide range of topics.
The Georgia native touched on the Martin Luther King Day showdown with Boston’s historic rivals the Los Angeles Lakers and his recently-sprained thumb (Brown expects to play), but quickly shifted to the outspoken young player’s career arc and his growth as a player and a person.
Joining a playoff team as a No. 3 overall pick was in itself an atypical situation, and the Cal-Berkeley product is himself an atypical player with intense intellectual interests in a variety of topics.
Adjusting to life as a professional under such unusual circumstances presented unique challenges Brown addressed in his discussion with Wojnaroski.
“I didn’t get the experience being able to make mistakes in the regular season and grow,” offered Marietta’s favorite son.
“I got to learn and experience the playoffs, which is another part of development, learning how to win, which is probably the most important development out of everything I know in this league.
Highlights and offensive capabilities are glamorized, more than winning. There’s players that [get] tremendous amount of publicity just for our ability to do this and do that, but winning is the ultimate goal.”
“And I think people have lost sight of that,” he continued.
“This organization has developed a skill to learn how to win,” Brown continued, speaking more generally than about the team’s recent spate of losses in the midst of a long and banged-up January.
“I think that in my class is nobody, maybe outside of [Pascal] Siakam that has won more playoff games or has won more games period, than me and as just being in this organization and add into that and learn how to win has been key, so it’s worked out really well for me.”
Brown and his fellow wing Jayson Tatum came into the league as No. 3 overall picks on a team that had another franchise do their losing for them, both draft picks used to select the Jays having come from the infamous trade which broke up Boston’s last title core.
They were asked to fit very specific and demanding roles early in their careers, effectively expected to play at a high rotation level almost immediately.
Such an ask for a teenager just a year removed from high school and a comparatively carefree life even as a top prospect was an absolutely world-changing experience. It was, perhaps, one that could benefit both as much as having run of the organization would have had they been drafted into a more traditional situation.
Brown’s atypical perspective on life encouraged him to avoid securing representation until he came due to sign an extension, instead relying on a network of peers and experts to help him navigate his early NBA career. He would eventually retain an agent to help him secure the best possible extension, which worked well for both him and Boston.
“I didn’t think I didn’t think [my agent] was going be able to get anything done,” he offered of early perspectives on the process, which appeared headed towards letting the former Golden Bear hit restricted free agency this summer,
“I was already locked and focused ready to carry the weight that I was going to go into this year, plan my fourth year out, and then they jumped up and that just showed that they wanted me to be here and organization, they appreciated my value. They thought that I added some winning so it just, [the deal that] was offered, it was too hard to … turn down.”
Pilloried as too high at the time by some analysts, it is already being viewed as a bargain around the league with the 23-year-old having demonstrated a number of promising steps forward on both sides of the ball this season.
But Brown also spoke extensively about his off-court work.
He spoke with Woj particularly about his interest in educational initiatives, and his fellowship with MIT, where he is engaged in a project to improve local education after experiencing some of the structural barriers his peers face in his own journey to the NBA while in high school in Georgia.
“I didn’t really notice the difference until I got to college and I got to reflect on my educational experience throughout high school,” he explained.
Standardized testing and “tracking” students towards or away from college became evident as major determinants in people’s lives that didn’t necessarily line up with those people’s potential, but instead helped reproduce the status quo.
This stood out to Brown, who watched as they would “funnel [people] into different places” in life based as much on their background as their ability.
“And our educational system for last [several] decades has been one of the biggest advocates of funneling kids certain directions and based off of things that they shouldn’t be based off,” he added.
The interview, nearly three-quarters of an hour in length, is an engaging one. Brown’s unusual entry into the NBA fits his extraordinary perspective on life, and the way he’s brought that unique way of looking at life as an NBA player is worth the listen.
Just coming into his own as a player on the court, it hints at the many years of high-level play which will — hopefully — allow for his philanthropic projects to grow alongside his basketball and academic acumen.
