Jaylen Brown never got the chance to be a number one option in the NBA. When he was drafted by Boston, he was playing behind Isaiah Thomas and Al Horford. Just one year later, Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward,
and Jayson Tatum joined the team, and all it took was one amazing playoff run from Jayson for the Celtics to be dubbed Tatum’s team.
It didn’t take long for JB to be looked at as the definitive second option, but he didn’t get much more credit than that. In fact, it seemed like the only times where Jaylen was given praise was when opposing fans and pundits were trying to pit him and Jayson against each other. Even then, Brown suffered from his fair share of scrutiny, constantly being ridiculed for having “no left hand” despite being a 4-time All-Star, and All-NBA player in 2023, and an Eastern Conference Finals MVP, Finals MVP, and NBA champion in 2024.
This season, for the first time in Jaylen’s NBA career, he’s been given the opportunity to be the number one option, albeit through unexpected and unfortunate circumstances. Some fans across the league were expecting it to be a dark season for Boston, partly because of the sharp talent drop-off from the roster as a whole, and partly because they didn’t believe in JB.
JB believed in himself, though. He’s heard your criticism and your praise, and he’s put it all behind him enroute to an MVP-caliber season. Brown is having a career year, averaging 29.5 points, 5 assists, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game — all career-highs outside of the rebounds.
Being a number one option also means increased focus from defenders, but that hasn’t bothered Jaylen. He’s scoring with a career-high in field goal percentage at 50.5%, and is at a five-year high in three-point percentage at 37%. Increasing your efficiency and scoring output while becoming the main player that the opposing team is game-planning for is an incredible feat, and a testament to the player JB is.
Now, it seems that opposing players are trying to pull out some extra stops to get under Jaylen’s skin in an attempt to slow him down. Brown, who used to be fairly private and quiet off of the court, has become more active this year. He’s given fans a closer look into his life and his mindset through Twitch streams, often times talking about what he’s seeing, doing and hearing on the court. In a recent stream, Jaylen called out some of the on-court antics he’s been facing lately.
“Trash talk is a part of the game. Recently, it’s been getting real disrespectful for whatever reason… Mad disrespectful on the court out of nowhere,” he said. Based on Brown’s reaction, it was pretty clear that it’s different than what he’s seen and heard in years past. However, he also seemed to take it on as a challenge, saying “That s**t ain’t gonna work. Keep it up.”
The cameras have even captured some of the disrespect live. In a matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, Kyle Kuzma was caught talking trash from the free-throw line to Jaylen, saying “this ain’t one of your Twitch streams.” To Kuzma’s credit, the Bucks won the game off of one of the best games of his career, but JB had an extremely efficient 30-point performance of his own, stepping up to the challenge.
In fact, that was Jaylen’s fourth-straight game of 30+ point performances, a streak that would end at nine-straight games, tying a Celtics record set by Larry Bird. Brown had 10 other games at or above 30 points prior to that streak as well, now reaching that mark in 19 out of 30 games played this season.
In the game just before his streak started, a game which broke up another three-game streak of 30+, JB tallied double digit assists, with a stat-line of 19 points, 11 assists, and 12 rebounds, his first triple-double of the season. Similarly, in the game that ended his most recent streak, he again had double-digit assists, a final stat-line of 23 points, 10 assists, and 6 rebounds.
Brown has been prepared to do whatever the Celtics need from him to win games, and has shown that he is one of the best players in this league. When people aren’t willing to see it, he’s happy to say it with his chest, too. After initial results from the fan voting for All-Star starters, he found himself with the sixth most votes in the East, sitting on the outside looking in. He took to twitter to express his dissatisfaction with the process, calling it a “PR contest.”
In addition, he shared a couple tweets in the past day standing up for himself. In one of them, he simply said “Best 2 way player in the game.” In the other, “Nobody watches you harder than people who doubt you give them a good show.” Safe to say, JB has been giving the league a fantastic show this season, leading the Celtics to a 21-12 record, the third-best record in the East so far.
Despite that, Brown was snubbed of the December Eastern Conference Player of the Month award. Jalen Brunson walked away with the honor despite Jaylen averaging more points, rebounds, and steals on better efficiency. Not only that, but Brown outscored Brunson 42 to 15 in a Celtics win when Boston and New York matched up in the month. Jaylen again voiced his displeasure with a simple tweet: “Smh.” Though, based on the season so far, it seems like he’ll be prepared to do more of the talking on the court.
There’s still a lot more basketball left to be played, but Jaylen has been having an unreal year while facing more scrutiny than ever before. As he would say, and has been proving for years, faith, consistency, and hard work pays off, aka FCHWPO.
