Brooklyn Nets rookie guard Mikel Brown Jr. is just a couple of weeks away from beginning training camp heading into his rookie NBA season where he'll be thrown into the fire early on. Brooklyn selected Brown with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft partially because of his intangibles and it seems like he's willing to get advice from outside forces as well.
"I don't think he gets enough credit. I was fortunate enough to have him as a mentor this year. He was in Louisville, he invited me to his crib and we watched some film together, played a little bit of chess," Brown said of having former NBA point guard Rajon Rondo as his mentor. Brown spent just one season at the University of Louisville, but in that time, he was able to learn some valuable
lessons from one of the better guards of his generation.
"I got to pick his brain a lot this year, watch film with him. I got to pick his brain, people view him as very smart, which he is very smart, but he just broke the game down in just such a simple way," Brown continued on Rondo. "Make the simple play. He just kept telling me that all season and it helped me down the stretch."
Brown, 20, is coming off a freshman season with the Cardinals where he averaged 18.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game while shooting 41.0% from the field and 34.4% from behind the three-point line. While Brown was getting advice from former greats like Rondo, he also had to deal with some added adversity as he dealt with a back injury that cost him about half of the season.
After working out for NBA teams at the Combine in Chicago, Brown proved that he had mostly recovered from the back injury and he showed what he could do when healthy during the summer league circuit. Rondo spent all of his career helping his teammates open and delivering some amazing passes to them, but Brown looks like he is willing to learn how to do the same, if not more.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets' Mikel Brown Jr. details having Rajon Rondo as a mentor
