FCHWPO: Jaylen Brown’s Boston | An NBC Sports Boston Documentary

FCHWPO: Jaylen Brown’s Boston | An NBC Sports Boston Documentary

[Music] California number seven. [Music] [Applause] Who are you? Who am I? I’m Jaylen Brown from the Boston Celtics. I feel like basketball kind of chose me. We’re ready to ride. Where my dogs at? We’re ready to die. Where my dogs at? Oh my goodness. the grave digger. You guys are getting a hard worker that I’m going to go to war for the fans, the city, and everything. Like from a media standpoint, a basketball player is specifically a basketball player. I want to be a part of the generation that kind of changes that connotation that you’re only a basketball player. [Music] Bill Russell, finals MVP, goes to Jaylen Brown. It’s just faith, consistency, hard work pays off, you know, just something I’ve lived by uh since the beginning. With the third pick in the 2016 NBA draft, the Boston Celtics select Jaylen Brown. Hindsight is 2020, but 9 years ago, the vision of what Jaylen Brown would mean to the Celtics was not crystal clear. I didn’t see it at three. That that’s that’s higher than I would have would have expected for Jaylen Brown. [Applause] The Boobirds are out. Mixed reaction. Mixed reaction. He’ll like him later. This guy is our guy and he’s our guy for the future. So, we’re pleased to make the pick and you we’re very glad that Jaylen Brown is a Celtic. From day one, Jaylen Brown’s fit in Boston is questioned, but the answer comes from the 19-year-old himself. I’mma uh wear my heart on my sleeve. I’mma I’mma go to war for Boston. I’mma go to war for the fans, the city, and everything. And uh I’mma leave my heart on the floor every night. In his first season, splash plays lead to an increased role in a spot on the all rookie team as the Celtics reach the Eastern Conference Finals. Jaylen Brown. Brown whipping by. Slipped right through and the foul. This is a rookie people. A new year brings a rookie running mate and Jason Tatum and ultimately a lineup feared across the league with Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Al Horford, and Marcus Smart. Oh my gosh, Hayward came down so hard. After a devastating injury to Haywood on opening night, Brown is thrust into the spotlight and his star rises. Jaylen Brown. Jaylen Brown with a dazzling move. Brown takes it. Got it. One ten of a second on the clock. Brown to the basket. Oh, what a play there. Brown helps lead a Celtics squad, missing Haywood and an injured Irving to another surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals, pushing LeBron James to the brink before falling short. There’s always two ways you can go. It’s either you can make an excuse and complain about it or you can use it and make yourself better. Right now, it stings, it hurts, it’s tough, but it’s going to make me better. Despite his success, or perhaps because of it, Brown’s name is mentioned in trade rumors surrounding disgruntled Spurs star Kawhi Leonard in the summer. I would do the trade of Jaylen Brown. I would give it all to for Kawhi Leonard if I knew Kawhi Leonard was going to sign here long term. Ignoring the noise, Brown is flying high leading into year three, foreseeing multiple championships in an interview with Bleacher Reports Taylor Rooks. 6 years. I’m going to go ahead and say five or six. before I say that. So, you win in the championship every year from here. I don’t want to. Yeah, I don’t want to jinx myself. You already did. You already said it. And I don’t play to lose. But things never go quite as planned. After a slow start, Brown has moved to the bench. And as the preseason favorites disappoint, they begin to unravel tomorrow clashing with yesterday. We got to continue to to play basketball. Starts from the top to the bottom. Not from the bottom to the top, but from the top to the bottom. Trade rumors reemerged during the season, reaching a crescendo after an early playoff exit. I don’t know what the future holds. Don’t really don’t know, but um I’m excited about my future. Despite trade speculation, Brown signs a 4-year, $115 million extension with Boston before the season begins in October. I still got the same goals, so the load is still on until I get the that job done. But the team has changed. Irving and Horford leave in free agency while Kemell Walker signs in their place. Brown lives up to his new deal, averaging 20 points for the first time in his career before the CO 19 pandemic shuts down the season in stride and the country comes to a reckoning. Protesters chanting I can’t breathe in Doorchester to condemn the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Four police officers fired after the black men died in their custody. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police, the nation mobilizes, including Brown. Who are we here for? Who are we here for? He helps lead protests of police brutality in his hometown of Atlanta, using his platform to advocate for change. We don’t want to pacify those situations. We don’t want no more empty gestures, none of that. like this is something that we feel strongly about and in the future we want to see change. It’s not the first time Brown uses his pulpit as a public figure. His push against the status quo dates back years, refusing to just shut up and dribble even at just 21 years old. There are basketball players who say you can’t chime in on other subjects or other important topics of the day. I’ve always disagree with that and I’ll disagree with that to the day I die. The day we choose to be silent about the things that matter is the day our life ends. Choose love, not hate. Hate is too much of something to burden. And when it comes to Boston, scarred by its infamous history of racial strife and discrimination, Brown as usual sees a new path forward for the city that’s become his home. Boston, we got a lot of work to do. Incarceration rate is ridiculous. Um the wealth disparity is embarrassing. Um the inequality in education specifically in Boston public schools needs to be better. Um this lack of resources there, lack of opportunity, the tokenism here in Boston needs to be addressed as well. Brown remains one of the NBA’s leading voices on social justice when the league starts back up in the bubble. The Heat eliminate the Boston Celtics in six games. But on the court, the Celtics fall once again in the Eastern Conference Finals. Unable to get over the hump, tempers reportedly boil over as heard by the Globe’s Gary Washburn. Families, his ups and downs, his fights, as emotions, but that’s exactly what we are family. We hold each other accountable. Obviously, we feel like we underachieved. We came up short. Stings still very, very proud of this group. A motivated Brown returns the following season and becomes an NBA All-Star for the first time. takes it. That goes. Wow. Wow. [Music] Brown trying to make something happen. [Music] Jaylen Brown with a thunder. Brown’s all-star leap is dampened by a seasonending wrist injury before the playoffs begin. And over the off season, the Celtics revamp their organization. My instincts told me a couple months ago that it was time for me to move on. Danny A, who drafted Brown, is gone. Brad Stevens, his only NBA head coach, is now team president. And Emodoka, who worked with Brown with Team USA in 2019, is brought in to lead the way with some hard coaching. It’s just a new look in general for the whole organization. It’s more diverse and things like that. So, I’m excited and I’m optimistic. But things start slowly early in the 202122 season with the C’s sitting around 500 by the time late January arrives. Questions swirl. Can the core of Brown and Tatum win or has it run its course? I’d start with something drastic. That’s just me. I’d be breaking up your two young stars and trading Jaylen Brown before the February deadline if the return is right. Brown goes to social media and post what marks an inflection point for the franchise. The energy is about to shift. [Music] [Music] Jaylen Brown with Thunder on Moab. Oh my goodness. [Music] Throws up a long three-pointer. Oh, it’s good. Jaylen Brown drills it with 5.3 remaining. Brown for three. Got it. Brown with 50. [Music] Just one game at a time. Finding some ways to win some games. Jaylen throws it up. And there’s all the back four. It’s showtime in the garden. Brown at the horn. Oh, Jaylen Brown is at another level. The sky’s is the limit. I mean, I’m beyond this guy. [Music] After years of close but no cigar, Brown and the Seas finally break through, becoming Eastern Conference champions for the first time since 2010. What does it mean to you to have gotten over the hump? Uh, it means everything, you know, all the adversity, all the struggles, the losses, the wins, everything. And we finally got to this moment makes it that much more special. The energy shifter leads the Celtics in scoring in his first ever finals appearance. The Dubs dynasty is still very much alive. But despite a two-1 series lead, Boston falls victim to the last gasp of the Warriors dynasty. Still got a lot to learn as a group individually. As much as we made growth and, you know, turned our season around, still got a lot to learn about the game of basketball. Stings to come up short, but future is bright. As if losing the finals isn’t bad enough, Brown once again finds himself in trade rumors. I’ve heard the Celtics have emerged as a real threat and they have the pieces potentially to put together a deal. As ever, the rumors amount to nothing. Then on the eve of training camp, Emmy Odoka is suspended by the Celtics for the 2022 23 season for violating team policies, replaced by assistant Joe Mazoula. We were all, you know, shocked what was going on. A little confused on the court. Brown and the Celtics start redot. [Music] Jayen Brown. He goes to new levels every game. I can play with the best of them. So, I just like reminding people of that. [Applause] Brown takes it. Oh my goodness. Are you kidding me? Brown makes his second career All-Star game as the Celtics cruised to the second best record in the NBA, but suffers a freak injury later in the season. Jaylen Brown cut his right hand, picking up a glass vase he knocked over while watering his plants last night and got five stitches. Said he’s expected to be ready for the playoffs, but he’s pissed. Brown plays through the pain, but the Celtics are upset by the eight seed heat in the Eastern Conference Finals with Jaylen taking the blame. We feel I feel let the whole city down. A lot of that is on me, so I just got to take it on the chin. Named to the AllNBA second team, Brown is eligible for a Supermax extension, which he doesn’t sign right away, leading to It is hard to not wonder why this hasn’t been easier. Why are there so many sticking points? Why would the Celtics be excited about it? Jaylen Brown is not worth being paid the highest paid player in the game. While others postulate Brown once again spends parts of his summer doing community work in Boston and highlights that by signing what is at the time the richest contract in NBA history surrounded by the Boston area children who are part of his bridge program serving the underserved. What’s your appreciation for Boston at this point? It’s it’s home in a sense. You know, I’ve been here longer than the places that I’ve been my entire life and I’ve been here for eight years now and growing. So, you know, I’m a part of the community. You know, my family’s a part of the community. So, I’m a part of the solutions. You know, I just want to help. I just want to build. I just want to make the world a better place. And and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. And Brown works to make the world a better place by making Boston a better place. Fighting the education gap by using his time and resources to improve the lives of Boston school children. His Juice Foundation’s Bridge program, exposing students from underrepresented areas of the city to new ideas and new futures. Depending on the zip code or the area that you grow up in determines the amount of resources, the opportunities that you may get. The world betting on them to lose and I’m betting on them to win. This is how I view the world. I don’t think any of that’s going to change anytime soon. So if you don’t like it, you know, get used to it. Anytime I’m helping people, that’s probably one of the few things that brings me joy and happiness. Brown’s Boston Exchange Organization takes aim at wealth inequality by investing in blackowned businesses. With the biggest financial deal in NBA history, it makes sense to talk about one-year investment in community, but two, also, you know, the wealth disparity here that nobody wants to talk about. It’s top five in the US. It’s something that we can all improve on. It’s it’s unsettling. And I think through my platform, through influential partners, through selected leaders, government officials a lot who are in this room, um that we can come together and create new jobs, new resources, new businesses, new ideas that could, you know, highlight minorities, but also stimulate the economy and the wealth gap at the same time. Brown’s financial commitment to social causes is just the latest phase in the evolution of his work off the court, which has left footprints all across Boston, including lecturing at Harvard on the social responsibility of athletes as a 21-year-old. The influence of an athlete is just as much as the influence as or even greater than the influence as some of your most favorite political elites and government officials. pairing with the Museum of Fine Arts to ensure the presentation of art from black and brown communities. We should have more representation. We should have opportunities to be in spaces like that. There should be programs where our art and our history is being displayed on these walls. A lot of people have a hard time seeing that climate change is affecting our day-to-day lives. They see it as something distant, but the reality that climate change is already here. And recently speaking about climate change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We’ve always had a lot of voices kind of going on the locker room. I think this year we got more, you know, quieter guys. So, I think there is a some room for some voices to speak up and I don’t mind being one of them. With Brown in town for the long haul, the Celtics add reinforcements in the form of Drew Holiday and Chris Sporzingis. These seats take the league by storm. [Music] Let go. You won’t have an answer for number seven. He dropped that. Highlight rail stuff from Jaylen Brown. [Music] Oh my goodness. What was that? I improved on a lot of the stuff that I needed to work on. I’m excited to go into the playoffs and keep it going and prove the same thing. Brown. Good night. The top seated Celtics roll past the Heat and Cavs in the first two rounds of the postseason before Brown takes matters into his own hands against the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Brown fakes, fires up the three. Jaylen Brown knocks down the three to tie the game. [Applause] Brown knocks it down. He’s got 40. [Applause] Playoffs. It’s the best time of the year. It is my honor and it’s my privilege. Jaylen Brown, we did nothing but a grind. We haven’t skipped most steps all season. Now we want to take it to the next level. I wasn’t expecting it at all. You know, I don’t never win. So, um I was just happy that we won. The Eastern Conference Finals MVP is winning plenty. There was just one thing left to do. Four more wins to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy. [Music] Brown goes inside. Oh, what a slam from Jaylen Brown. I’m Lucas. Jaylen Brown, a defensive demon. [Music] Boston Selen. So, one win away from an NBA title. [Music] The 2024 Bill Russell Finals MVP goes to Jaylen Brown. [Applause] [Music] We did it as a team. Like we were selfless. We sacrificed. JT sacrificed and that helped us get over the hump in these moments. But we learned we learned from all those things. All the heartbreak, all that stuff. We carried that with us. Champions, as the banner is being stitched, 2024 is the summer of Jaylen. Honors both on and off the court. And of course, a parade from Causeway to Boilston, nearly a decade in the making. My relationship with Boston has grown. Um, I’ve been here for almost 9 years now. Since I was 18, 19 years old, I’ve grown up. I’ve become a man here. Boston is special. But it wasn’t all golden. The finals MVP is left off Team USA, leading to beefs with Gran Hill and even Nike. all while charting his own path by creating a sneaker in performance line debuting the following season. Just for athletes being able to kind of uh write their own story. You know, you don’t have to wait around for a major corporation if you want to start something and um you got a following, you got influence, you can collab with people and kind of take the power into your own hands. With rings fitted and the newest banner in place, minds naturally drift toward the prospect of a repeat. Oh my goodness. The gravedigger has arrived in Chicago. Find Brown. He’s smoking. Jaylen Brown. The grave digger comes in. Chance for the last adds another to his poster collection. Brown just put beef stew in the rim. The gravedigger on the trailer. Yes, sir. But the Celtics enter the playoffs plagued by illness and injuries, Brown included. I was in some pain today, pushing through it, trying to find ways to still be aggressive and add value to the team. I’ve had to come to grips that every night I’m not going to feel my normal self. Despite some flashes of greatness in the postseason, the steel, there he goes for JB. This place is erupted. Five to shoot. He eyes up Wendell Carter. The step back, the three heating up. The Celtics are eliminated in the second round and clouds of doubt hover over the team’s horizon in the form of Jason Tatum’s ruptured Achilles tendon. Who are you? Who am I? I can’t answer that at the moment, but I’m a Boston Celtic for now. He’s still a Celtic as well as an all-star, an entrepreneur, and a champion of both the NBA and the city of Boston. With Tatum out and new ownership at the helm, these are Brown Celtics. Things didn’t go our way this year. Losing to the Knicks, you know, feels like death. I was always taught that there’s life after death. So, take this with your chin up. It looks gloomy right now. There’s a lot to look forward to. I want the city to feel excited about that. This is not the end. So, I’m looking forward to what’s next.

A journey along Jaylen Brown’s career in Boston; from the boos of NBA Draft Night, through multiple trade rumors, his crucial social justice work, becoming NBA Finals MVP and a champion, and into the season where he’ll take the lead for the Celtics without Jayson Tatum by his side.

Celtics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgWubNzoFtLE_PacW58Bq68mED822zeTL