The NBA has named Boston Celtics fourth-year shooting guard Jaylen Brown its final East Player of the week for 2019, boosting his profile for a 2020 All-Star nod.
Boston Celtics fourth-year shooting guard Jaylen Brown has been named the final East Player of the Week for 2019, his first such honor in his career.
Brown, whose extraordinary play of late has driven home the wisdom of Celtics president Danny Ainge extending the Georgian wing ahead of the 2019-20 NBA season’s start, has been instrumental in Boston winning five of its last six games.
Over the three games which took place in the week he is being honored, the Cal-Berkeley product recorded 27 points per game on 62.2 % shooting (including 57.9 % from deep), showing off his chops as one of the league’s most efficient high-usage players in recent weeks.
The Marietta native has forced reassessment from his critics, who panned the former No. 3 pick’s $107-million, four-year extension as overly-generous at the time.
đ @FCHWPO has received @NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors for the first time in his career!
Now, with the likes of NBA-champion color commentator Richard Jefferson praising the deal as a bargain, the former Golden Bear is helping push the narrative Boston ought to have three players — including Brown of course — in the 2020 NBA All-Star game.
While it’s too early to say how the 3-year-old’s All-Star campaign may go with third-year swingman Jayson Tatum and All-NBA point guard Kemba Walker also potential All-Stars, honors like this one should boost Brown’s candidacy among voters, if nothing else.
Leaving practice early due to illness today, Boston’s budding star wing Jaylen Brown could miss Tuesday night’s New Year’s Eve game against Charlotte.
New England winters are brutal, weakening immune systems and generally making life tough for those who choose to live there, and fourth-year wing Jaylen Brown may be dealing with a bit of that himself right now.
Brown had to leave practice today due to feeling ill, and may yet miss the flight to North Carolina for tomorrow’s away game against the Charlotte Hornets, reports the Athletic’s Jay King.
He went to the hospital to get checked out as a precaution, no word as of yet as to whether he’s expected to play, but may end up joining big men Robert Williams III (left hip bone edema) and Vincent Poirier (broken finger) on the injured list for the game.
Jaylen Brown is out sick. He tried to come to practice, but ended up leaving to get checked out at the hospital.
The 13-22 Hornets do not exactly inspire fear in most of their opponents, and should be able to be handled by the team in the Georgia native’s absence, especially if forward Gordon Hayward and reserve guard Marcus Smart are available.
That pair are recently returned from injury themselves, Smart a double eye infection and Hayward chronic nerve pain in his foot, each having been able to play in Boston’s last game, a home loss against the Toronto Raptors.
Both should play against Charlotte, and should easily be sufficient to cover for Brown should he need a game off to get healthy.
With shooting guard Jaylen Brown, forward Jayson Tatum and point guard Kemba Walker driving Boston’s success, the case for three Celtics in the 2020 All-Star game is a strong one.
Do the Boston Celtics have a legitimate shot at sending three players to the 2020 NBA All-Star game?
After the Jay Team combined for 64 points and 14 rebounds in their 129-117 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the case is getting stronger.
Just the third trio to play for the storied franchise who have scored 30 or more each while still younger than 23, the young duo of fourth-year shooting guard Jaylen Brown and third-year swingman Jayson Tatum are in rarified air.
Only Bill Russell and Tommy Heinsohn, and Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker decades later are the only other duos to achieve such a feat.
And we should not forget they are doing it alongside a modern-day Walker having a career year wearing the same No. 8 jersey his predecessor did.
That Walker, UConn product Kemba, joined Brown as the first teammates in NBA history to each make five threes on Christmas.
What’s more, he has hit as many in a dozen games already this season, just four games short of the franchise season record held by Isaiah Thomas in 2016-17.
Did we mention there’s more than half the season ahead?
The Celtics are the only team in the NBA with three players averaging north of 20 points per contest, own the league’s second-best scoring differential, third-best record, third-best defense, and fourth-best offense, as related by Celtics play-by-play maestro Sean Grande.
The case only gets stronger when you look at the other options given the former Husky is likely a starter for the mid-season friendly.
Only the Brooklyn Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie and perhaps Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal or the Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young the only guards with reasonable shots at stealing away a starting role from the Bronx native.
There’s also few truly transcendent frontcourt players in the East for the fire-and-ice duo to compete with after Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
And, as noted by MassLive’s John Karalis, there are plenty more reasons than counting stats to include the Jay Team in full, such as the fact Brown joins Giannis as the only other East player averaging above 20 points per contest with greater than 50 % accuracy.
The Duke product is second among East forwards in plus/minus, and third in net rating, while joining Brown among the top six in offensive rating.
The Celtics own the NBAâs 3rd best record (22-7), the NBAâs 2nd best scoring differential (8.3), 4th best offense, 3rd best defense and only one East team (Washington) has more home games remaining.
One might even make the argument it’s hard to not have the Celtics with three players in a wing-starved Eastern Conference. Teammate Daniel Theis, for example, thinks all three ought to make it, though he’s obviously going to be biased.
“I think weâre going to have all three in there,” Theis offered (via MassLive’s Tom Westerholm). “I think they deserve it. Personally theyâre playing great, and as a team we have the second-best record [in the East] right now,” he added.
Unbiased eyes are coming around as well, with basketball fanatics like actor Michael Rapaport seeing the argument for three being sound as well.
Of course, none of this will happen without the fan vote lifting the trio into the event with fan voting, a fact noted after Boston’s Friday afternoon win over the Cavs by outspoken center Enes Kanter.
“Please donât forget to vote for Tatum and Brown for the NBA All-Stars,” admonished the Turkish big man, who has been on something of a tear of his own over the last few games Boston has played.
“Please, vote for them,” he continued, noting it was their play making everyone around them better.
Brown has kept his eyes on the prize, however, prefering to take each game in front of the team as a chance to hone their skills further. “We have to continue to have the right balance. Make the right plays, the right reads, and continue to get better,” noted the Georgia native.
“We have to get better,” he added. “Weâre looking to be a team playing deep into the postseason this year so every game counts, every game is a chance to get better, every game is an opportunity and weâve got to make sure that we seize it.”
“We still have our best days in front of us, so as a team we have to continue to strive, less about the opponent and more about us,” he continued.
The prospect of this version of the Celtics as incomplete and growing stronger has to strike fear into the hearts of rival teams around the league, because this trio of scoring menaces has already put the league on notice.
Are we really still debating whether they should be in the All-Star game?
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown each scored 26 points through the first three-quarters of Boston’s blowout win over the Pistons.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were so productive through the first three quarters that Boston didnât need either of them in the fourth, as the Celtics routed Detroit 114-93.
Tatum and Brown made up the bulk of the scoring for Boston, with each of them putting up 26 points through the first three quarters.
The only other player in double-digits for the Celtics was Grant Williams, who came off the bench to score 18, a new career-high for the rookie.
It wasnât points, but Enes Kanter grabbed double-digit rebounds, pulling down 18 of the teamâs 51 boards.
Kemba Walker struggled from the floor on Friday night, going 0-of-6. His only two points of the game came from the free-throw line, although he did dish out 11 assists.
Boston was also playing without Gordon Hayward, who was out again with a sore left foot, and Marcus Smart, who is still dealing with a left eye infection.
However, it wasnât Hayward or Smart that fans most wanted to see.
Chants of âWe want Tacko!â rained down inside TD Garden during the fourth quarter.
Fans got their wish with 4:31 remaining in the game. Brad Stevens even got in on the fun, motioning for fans to cheer and get louder before motioning for Fall to check into the game.
Frustrated with the status quo of U.S. public education, Boston’s Jaylen Brown wants to use his M.I.T. fellowship to make a change for the better.
As brilliant as he can be at times, Jaylen Brown almost didn’t make it as a college student.
Overwhelmed by intensity of the course load at a summer bridge program designed to lessen the impact of transitioning from high school to college at Cal-Berkeley, Brown called his mother in a moment of distress.
“Mom, I might be in over my head. I think that perhaps this is maybe too much for me,” he said (via the Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang), second-guessing whether he belonged at one of the nation’s most elite academic institutions.
“I remember she told me, âJaylen, just do your best.â She said it with the patience that I needed to hear,” offered the former Golden Bear.
Jaylen Brown is on a mission to challenge the inequality in America's education system: âI consider myself a smart guy, but once you learn somebody has been outsmarting you your whole life, it kind of sucks to realize." https://t.co/mYkTGmP5KF
Despite the daily readings and extensive writing assignments, Brown persevered. And in so doing, he encountered the work of Jeannie Oakes — specifically Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality.
The academic work deals with ‘tracking’, a concept widely used in secondary schools in the U.S. that separates children based on their perceived intellectual capacities in ways that actually reinforce social inequalities.
“I experienced a lot of the stuff she was talking about, and I had no idea,” Brown explained. “I consider myself a smart guy, but once you learn somebody has been outsmarting you your whole life, it kind of sucks to realize.”
“That made me kind of emotional,” he added, admitting it literally brought him to tears.
Oakes’ work is far from an outlier; countless academic works support the findings that public education in North America and Europe tends to stratify — or place students of poorer and minority backgrounds in one group, and mostly white, mostly wealthy children in another — as much as they educate.
Looking for more readings on discipline in public eduction…? check out Willis's Learning to Labor, and Foucault. #FutureEd
This hit home with Brown, who discovered he could use his platform to educate others about the pitfalls waiting for them within the educational system.
With multiple educators in his own family, Brown knew something was off after experiencing the difference between regular and ‘advanced’ classes in high school, and Oakes’ work helped crystalize those suspicions into a diamond of knowledge at the core of the Marietta native’s project.
Witnessing how teachers would encourage a rich embrace of topics with students in advanced classes compared to the rote memorization of facts in standard high school courses, Brown knew something wasn’t right.
“Iâm just an advocate of my own experiences and things that Iâve seen … Iâve been blessed to be able to attend university to help me put terms with the pain and the distress Iâve seen and felt growing up,” he offered.
His plan is to start small, focusing on Boston-area schools, but would eventually like to use technology to link those groups to others in California and beyond.
“There are a group of people that are comfortable being the dominant group,” the fourth-year wing said.
“Some people might think thereâs nothing wrong with the world and it should stay the way it is,” he added, pointing an invisible finger at those who would allow the status quo to stand.
“Iâm one of the people that challenges that and thinks we still have a lot of growth left to do,” he added.
Given U.S. academic achievement lags behind many other countries despite spending among the most per student of any nation, the Cal-Tech product has a point.
After fan pushback over his comments casting blame for last season at the feet of the front office, Jaylen Brown claims he was misquoted by Heavy’s Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson.
The saga just won’t end.
It seems Boston Celtics fourth-year wing Jaylen Brown takes issue with how his response to a particularly polarizing question was framed regarding his thoughts on who was to blame for last season’s struggles.
The seemingly-endless Kyrie Irving drama came back to life earlier this week when Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson interviewed Brown, and the Georgia native’s answer stirred up a lot of strong emotions from fans.
Even still, there was pushback from fans that it was a bad look to explicitly throw others under the bus, prompting Brown’s response on Wednesday to the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn.
Jaylen Brown refutes presentation of latest remarks about Kyrie Irving https://t.co/MoGi6y10NR
“I think it was a misquote, for sure, but to be honest Iâm tired of talking about it and tired of being asked about it,â said the Cal-Berkeley product.
“It definitely, I would say, was a misquote. It didnât come off the way I said it, the way it was written with a narrative where [the writer] already wrote the story the way he wanted to write the story but it definitely wasnât intended in that manner.”
“But Iâm tired of being asked about it to be honest,” Brown added for emphasis.
Robinson’s reply on WEEI’s Dale and Keefe radio show denied any mischaracterization, instead suggesting the young wing was in damage control mode after the stir his words allegedly created.
His words:
“New York is my market, don’t hate me, but I have a great respect for Boston at large, and you guys are passionate fans, you guys love your stars, criticize them, hate them if they need to be, but Jaylen Brown said that to me, which he did, and he kind of wanted to condescend things, I get it.
Jaylen is 23 years old, Jaylen Brown is looking to compete for a championship in the next couple of years with Boston. I would say I’d probably say the same thing. I don’t agree with him, but I get where he was going with it.”
For more of Robinson’s response, check the full show linked here.
Whatever the case may be, it’s likely future such interview questions on the topic will be met with “no comment” from any player approached on the issue going forward.
It seems fans, analysts, and reporters alike have hit the same wall the players have on this issue, and further inquiry on the topic — at least in the short term — is unlikely to yield much more than irritated interviewees.
It’s not uncommon for phrases edited out of their full context to create an incomplete picture of a sensitive topic despite everyone’s best intentions, and that may be case here, too.
But the ongoing displeasure that seems to arise every time the topic is brought up again is perhaps, as much as anything else has been, a sign to let the controversy die a quiet death, as the team has repeatedly requested.
Fourth-year wing Jaylen Brown doesn’t subscribe to the idea Kyrie Irving was to blame for Boston’s 2018-19 struggles.
Another voice has joined the chorus decrying the blame laid at Kyrie Irving’s feet for the Boston Celtics’ disastrous 2018-19 season, this time from a surprising source.
Jaylen Brown, interviewed by Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, pushed back against such narratives, reports the New York Post’s Kristian Winfield, instead suggesting fault was more of a shared affair beginning in the front office.
While things have calmed down since a raucous TD Garden gave former Celtics and current Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving a very cold welcome in November, they’ll likely heat back up in March, when the two teams face off again in Boston.
Jaylen Brown says for Kyrie Irving, a lot of the blame was undeserved.
âIt wasnât his fault that certain guys couldnât take a step back. It wasnât his fault. That was the front office and coachesâ fault.â
And while it’s understandable for fans to boo the Australian floor general for choosing to play elsewhere after his promise to stay, his now-former teammates took issue with just how far the fans and media took the hazing.
“[For] Kyrie, a lot of the blame was undeserving,” Brown explained.
“It wasnât his fault that certain guys couldnât take a step back. It wasnât his fault. That was the front office and coaches fault. He gets a lot of that blame because he was the star, but a lot of that should be on the organization/coaching staff.”
This is especially noteworthy given the Georgia native and Irving were not known to be fast friends like fellow wing players Jayson Tatum and Gordon Hayward were, echoing mea culpas from the likes of Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens.
While it remains to be seen whether the fans will move on from last season as the current iteration of the Celtics has requested, it’s clear the Cal-Berkeley product has.
We discussed Celtics fans, their loss to 76ers on Thursday, what life has been like since signing his extension, why @JCrossover is still a free agent AND why he likes Kyrie Irving as a Brooklyn Nets PG! pic.twitter.com/6Dvh2dzERU
— đđBrandon âScoop Bâ Robinson (@ScoopB) December 16, 2019
“Kyrie is in a better place in Brooklyn, somewhere his roots are. Heâll be fine,” the fourth-year shooting guard said.
“Itâs in the past,” Brown added.
Fingers crossed on behalf of those of us who’d prefer to talk about this iteration of the Boston franchise.
Yet another one of Kyrie Irving’s ex-Celtics teammates has expressed the point guard was not solely to blame for Boston’s issues in 2018-19.
When the Boston Celtics visited the Brooklyn Nets on Black Friday, some of Kyrie Irving’s old teammates delivered a loud message. Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, Semi Ojeleye, Brad Wanamaker and Robert Williams all greeted the ex-Celtics point guard at mid-court, each embracing him in some form or fashion.
With all the controversy surrounding last year’s Celtics team, the number of players who made a point to speak with Irving was a bit surprising. Though there were some who didn’t talk to Irving, at least publicly.
One of them was Jaylen Brown. There’s been speculation he was among the young players Irving spoke about unfavorably during his time in Boston. But it appears Brown has moved on.
During a recent interview with Brandon Robinson of Heavy, the Celtics wing explained why Irving does not the level of blame he’s received.
Everybody is going to have their own opinion. I don’t think Kyrie cares too much, maybe he does, and maybe he shouldn’t care as much as he does. He’s Kyrie Irving at the end of the day ⊠nobody is perfect. Kyrie got a lot of the blame and was undeserving. It wasn’t his fault that certain guys couldn’t take a step back. It wasn’t his fault. That was the front office and the coach’s fault. He gets a lot of that blame because he was the star. But a lot of that should be on the organization and coaching staff.
Brown also stated he’s “happy to see him flourish,” and he believes Irving will “be good for the Brooklyn Nets.”
Al Horford played a critical role on the Boston Celtics the three seasons he was with the franchise.
Al Horford was the Boston Celtics’ core veteran during the three seasons he played for the franchise, with his leadership helping stabilize a relatively young team.
Though Horford is now with the Philadelphia 76ers, Celtics wing Jaylen Brown wants Celtics fans to show their appreciation for Horford. On Thursday night, Horford will return to TD Garden for the first time since signing with the Sixers in free agency over the offseason. The Sixers and Celtics will tip off at 8 p.m. EST.
âI think he should be celebrated, in my opinion,â Brown said after the Celticsâ 122-117 loss to the Pacers on Wednesday. âBoston fans, theyâre going to do what they want regardless, but Al came here and contributed, took this team the farthest itâs been since [making the Finals in 2010]. I think Al served his time well here. For me, he was a great leader, a great person to carry us every step of the way, so I know Iâll clap for him when they call his name.â
#Sixers PF Al Horford underwent treatment this morning for left knee soreness and left hamstring tightness and is now considered questionable for tonightâs game. Went through shootaround. His status for tonightâs game will be updated as appropriate.
Horford helped the Celtics go to the playoffs each of the three seasons he played for the franchise. The Celtics lost the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Horford’s two first seasons with the team. Last season, the Celtics lost in the second round of the playoffs to the Milwaukee Bucks.
During his stint with the Celtics, Horford had some of his best years. During the 2016-17 season, he posted a career-high 5.0 assists per game; his top three assists per game numbers are from his three seasons in Boston.
He averaged 13.5 points, grabbed 7.0 rebounds and shot 38.2% from the 3-point line during his time with the Celtics. This season, Horford is averaging 13.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and shooting 36.6% from deep.
Though he plays for the rival Sixers, Celtics fans should show their gratitude for what Horford did for the franchise.
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown makes a joke out of Ben Simmons.
The Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics have been big rivals for a long time. There is certainly no love lost between the two historic franchises in the NBA as the teams prepare for a matchup on Thursday in Boston.
On Monday night, Celtics star Jaylen Brown added fuel to the fire as he made a joke out of Ben Simmons’ offensive game when asked about the production of Celtics rookie Grant Williams.
After Boston knocked off the Cleveland Cavaliers 110-88, Brown was asked about Williams’ recent production after a streak where he was scoreless over a stretch of four games in late November and he said they started calling him Ben Simmons. He was referring to Simmons’ scoreless game against the Celtics in the 2018 playoffs.
Jaylen was asked about the nicknames they gave Grant Williams during his 0-for streak
"Yeah we were calling him Ben Simmons for a while"
This is one of those juicy quotes that adds to the hype and the rivalry for the game on Thursday at the TD Garden. Simmons has been very aggressive in recent games and if that’s the case on Thursday, then he should be extra motivated to want to have a big game for his team much like in the playoffs when then-Brooklyn Nets forward Jared Dudley called him “average” in the half-court. He has a history of responding when he has to. [lawrence-related id=20980,20973,20951]
