“If you wanna be an MVP, you wanna be top of the top, you gotta sell your soul and just be a flopper.”
Jaylen Brown leads the Celtics in scoring with 29.1 points per game this year (Charles Krupa/AP Photo).
Jaylen Brown has been playing close to an MVP level this year, as he has taken over as the primary scorer for the Celtics while Jayson Tatum is out.
With the Celtics now 15-9 and having won eight of their last 10 games, Brown has moved up to 10th on the NBA’s MVP ladder. He is leading the Celtics in scoring with 29.1 points per game, and was named the most recent Eastern Conference Player of the Week.
As Brown becomes involved in the MVP discussion, he gave his take on past winners and the problem with players flopping in the NBA.
“If you wanna be a great player, you gotta sell your soul,” Brown said Monday while streaming. “You gotta be a flopper. If you wanna be an MVP, you wanna be top of the top, you gotta sell your soul and just be a flopper.”
“If you wanna be a great player, you gotta sell your soul. You gotta be a flopper. If you wanna be an MVP, you wanna be top of the top, you gotta sell your soul and just be a flopper.“
– Jaylen Brown pic.twitter.com/Cc6foIuiBZ
— Riley ❄️ (@rileysbetter) December 9, 2025
Flopping has been a spot of contention in the NBA for years, as this season has seen the highest average number of free throws per game since the 2007-2008 season, with 24.8.
As these numbers increase, Brown seems to have a point regarding the correlation between MVP and free throw numbers.
Last year’s MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was second in the league in free throw attempts per game (8.8), and this year he is averaging 10.2 attempts. He is only behind Luka Doncic in this stat at the moment, who, coincidentally, is third in the MVP race.
Along with Gilgeous-Alexander, the 2022-2023 MVP Joel Embiid is infamous for looking to draw fouls. He was also second in the league in the year he won, averaging 11.7 per game.
Brown is further down the list this year as he only takes 7.1 per outing, and believes he might have to work on his acting game if he wants to take down this award.
“Y’all want me to be on that?” Brown said in regards to flopping. “I can do it. I can start going to practice and working on, like, throwing my head.”
Brown will look to continue his run at MVP and keep the Celtics’ five-game win streak going as the Celtics next play the Bucks on Thursday.
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