Jaylen Brown is in his 10th NBA season — and he keeps getting better.

The Boston Celtics star is averaging career highs across the board in points (28.8), rebounds (7.0), and assists (5.3) per game while improving his shooting percentage (47.6 percent) despite a higher volume of shots. With Jayson Tatum sidelined until early March, Brown has thrived in a lead role for Boston, emerging as a legitimate MVP candidate while helping the C’s maintain a top-two seed in the Eastern Conference.

Brown has dispelled plenty of narratives this season; he’s been consistently strong driving to the basket with his left hand despite that part of his game previously being viewed as a weakness, and he ranks second on the Celtics in assists after being viewed as a more ball-dominant player earlier in his career.

Brown recently sat down with NBC Sports Boston analyst and ex-Celtics champion Brian Scalabrine to watch film from his dominant 2025-26 season to date. Brown discussed the criticism around his left hand, his growth as a playmaker and much more. Here are two notable soundbites:

Brown opens about left hand issues

“I think there was some truth to it,” Brown told Scalabrine about the narrative that he struggled on drives with his left hand. “… I had a major surgery on my left wrist, and then I actually reinjured it again in 2023. So in 2021, I had a major surgery where I tore all the ligaments on my left hand.

“Basketball, the game is ruthless. If the team knows that you had an injury, they’re gonna try to force you to that. And then I had a loose body again in 2023 where I had a chip in my wrist that had to get fixed. So, I think that was a real criticism or critique of my game is that I struggled going left, but a lot of it was due to injury.

“As I’ve gotten more healthy, I’ve done stem cells and stuff like that in my wrist that’s helped improve the flexibility and the motion. I’ve been able to get back to being more progressive with my left hand. But at one point, I barely could dribble the ball with my left hand at times, you know what I mean? So, I was out there playing with one hand behind my back.”

Brown describes how the game has slowed down for him

“I think I’ve definitely been more patient,” Brown told Scalabrine. “I’ve slowed down in certain areas where you still see me use my athleticism and explosion in certain areas, but then you’ll notice I’ll get real slow, almost like I’m going at a casual pace. Because the slower you go, the easier it is to read everything. The faster you go, the harder those reads are.

“If you slow down where you’re going two miles per hour, you can see the stop signs, you can see the dog, you can see the mailman putting stuff in the mail. You see everything when you slow down. When you’re going too fast, you’re driving full speed, you’re not seeing nothing. Everything is a blur.

“… I know certain spots on the floor where, no matter who’s guarding me, I have a good chance of getting a good shot up. So, I’m just identifying those spaces, and then as the flow of our offense goes, I’ve always got my eye on where those spaces are. … When I get there is when I try to slow down and focus on my footwork.”

Watch the full interview in the video player above, or on YouTube below.