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<\/p>\nIT’S A FEW WEEKS before the start of the NBA season, and Jaylen Brown is dripping on the Celtics\u2019 practice court in Boston, gutting out one of his infamous four-a-day training sessions. The 28-year-old, who\u2019s now in his ninth season, is the prototypical NBA guard, listed at 6\u20326\u2033 and 223 pounds, but longer and bigger and all sinewy muscle in person. He takes two dribbles to the left, sizing up an oncoming defender (extra-equipped with two foam arm pads to be more of a shot-blocking threat), then firing up a floater for a swish. Over the next few hours, he\u2019ll battle these defenders while launching more floaters, runners, and jump shots. Then he\u2019ll deliver kicks and punches during an ultra-intense Muay Thai sparring session. After that, he\u2019ll work through classic muscle-building exercises, including an isometric Nordic curl, in which he holds his entire body parallel to the floor using only the strength of his hamstrings for eight seconds. Finally, he\u2019ll hit the pool with 100-pound weights, doing farmer\u2019s walks and split squats with his entire body submerged. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a mix of training modalities that has layered so much new muscle onto his shoulders and back that some on X think Brown is on a revenge tour this season. It\u2019s been a wild few months for Brown, who is entering the second year of a $300 million-plus five-year contract. His performance in the NBA Finals earlier this year elevated his status as one of the league\u2019s new generation of stars. When his much-celebrated Celtics teammate Jayson Tatum sputtered, shooting just 12 of 38 in the first two games, Brown scored 43 points on only 27 shots, pushing the Celtics to a 2\u20130 lead. He was also the Celtics\u2019 best perimeter defender and was instrumental in harassing Mavs star Luka Don\u010di\u0107 into 4.6 turnovers per game in the Finals. <\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s performances drew raves, including from Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd, who said Brown was Boston\u2019s best player. Many viewed Kidd\u2019s comment as an attempt to divide Brown and Tatum during the series. Brown does not. \u201cIf you ask him, I think he meant exactly what he was saying,\u201d says Brown. \u201cI think he honestly believed that was just his opinion.\u201d The Celtics won the series 4\u20131, with Brown\u2019s performance earning him the Finals MVP award. \u201cI\u2019ve always had the understanding of a process, of a team, and I never really complained about it. Have I thought I deserved more at certain points in my career? One thousand percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In Brown\u2019s mind, he\u2019s the solution to any Celtics discord. \u201cAs the leader of this team,\u201d he says, \u201cit\u2019s my job to bring the best out of everybody. Sometimes it\u2019s okay to take a back seat in order for other people to shine.\u201d His pride in being the ultimate team player made Brown\u2019s snub from the 2024 USA Olympic basketball team surprising. Brown called out the team\u2019s sponsor Nike on X, writing, \u201c@nike this what we doing?\u201d It appeared that he believed Nike influenced the decision to exclude him because he was not a Nike athlete.<\/p>\n
Not that Brown had a quiet summer. Frustrated with the big shoe companies\u2019 treatment of athletes, he launched his own brand, 741,<\/a> and released his own signature shoe, the Rover. He continued his beef with Nike while rapping alongside A$AP Ferg on \u201cJust Do It,\u201d a track with more than a million Spotify plays and Brown\u2019s baritone voice spitting, \u201cBalling ain\u2019t the only thing I know.\u201d He also did another year of his five-day Bridge education camp for students of color, hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (More on that later.) He founded Boston XChange, a nonprofit that supports the growth of local Black entrepreneurs and start-ups. And he took on the role of chief innovation officer for Hapbee, a wellness tech company. <\/p>\n That\u2019s a lot of extracurriculars, but Brown is building a more-than-an-athlete legacy, one that won\u2019t allow society to box him in. He\u2019s pursuing cultural and societal impact as well as athletic dominance. \u201cQuick, athletic, strong\u2026the way our society is, it just wants to shape those qualities into entertainment,\u201d he says. \u201cBut influence [doesn\u2019t work like that]. Influence, to me, is beyond just entertainment.\u201d Brown is quietly confident and tactical during our interview, silent for several seconds before delivering a lengthy response to every question. He\u2019s eager to get his points across; he makes probing eye contact to gauge if you\u2019re vibing with his message. <\/p>\n Jaylen Brown had his best season in 2023\u201324, averaging 23 points a game, leading the Celtics to the NBA title, and earning Finals MVP honors.<\/p>\n His goals stretch decades beyond his playing career. What he really wants is a legacy (his word) that emulates those of his heroes. He tells me his Big Three are the Celtics great Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, and Kobe Bryant. \u201cBill Russell, for what he spoke towards in terms of inequalities and justice for people of color,\u201d he says. \u201cMuhammad Ali, for his belief system, his faith, his charisma, his fearlessness\u2014and his affirmation that \u2018I\u2019m the greatest.\u2019 Kobe had that I-don\u2019t-give-a-fuck attitude. Kobe\u2019s confidence was real fulfilling, like he really thought that highly of himself\u2014but also because he worked hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown says this (and everything) completely straight-faced, daring to not only invoke the names of the giants, but to say he ranks up there with them. And yes, it seems premature, given the r\u00e9sum\u00e9s of Russell, Ali, and Bryant, inside and outside the arena. But that\u2019s what makes Brown\u2019s journey compelling: Can he lead the Celtics to another championship this season (they\u2019re favorites) while also juggling his extracurriculars? Like all of us, Brown wants to be the best version of himself, and he\u2019s working hard to transform his body and his game. But his story is about more than self-actualization, because he\u2019s also taking on behemoth corporations and systemic injustice. Making an impact in those arenas will be his greatest challenge.<\/p>\n WHEN BROWN PONDERS the big problems that need solving and where he feels he can have an impact, he gravitates toward education. He calls the current system an \u201caggressive\u201d way of holding children back from being successful. \u201cWhere you go to school can determine the education you get,\u201d he says. \u201cIn America, you pay for your education. So if you don\u2019t have money to afford it, you don\u2019t have a contribution to society. It limits your opportunities significantly.\u201d <\/p>\n Brown came to this realization long before he had the influence that\u2019s come with his athleticism, says his mother, Mechalle Varnado-Brown, a former marketing communications professor. Brown wanted to create an education camp for kids even before he was drafted by Boston in 2016. \u201cWhen he declared for the draft at UC Berkeley, he talked about \u2018I want to use my platform to help others,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cHe knew it would be some form of education, because that\u2019s what, you know, gives people the freedom to be able to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n Jaylen Brown focuses his weight room work on exercises that help bulletproof him against injury, like this Pallof press.<\/p>\n In 2018, at age 21, Brown was invited to lecture at Harvard<\/a> on education, race, and institutionalized sport as part of its Askwith Education Forum. He riffed on the importance of athletes using their voices for positive change, taking issue with Fox News host Laura Ingraham\u2019s comment that LeBron James should \u201cshut up and dribble.\u201d In 2019, when he was still coming off the bench for the Celtics, the MIT Media Lab named him to its Director\u2019s Fellows program, which aimed to bring a diverse group of leaders into the organization\u2019s culture. Brown quickly spun that into a yearly five-day camp for Black and Brown high school teenagers, where they can learn and think creatively about science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. His mom runs the program through his 7uice Foundation. It was also an early chance to start carving a legacy around more than hoops. Typically, when an athlete wants to \u201cgive back,\u201d they start a sports camp. Brown\u2019s Bridge Program has had a different impact, setting students up to learn from astronauts and scientists of color, giving them instant proof that they can be more than athletes. \u201cEvery other player does basketball camps,\u201d Brown says. \u201cI do learning camps. Having someone like myself to just be around and tell [kids], \u2018Yo, society is betting on you to lose. Well, I\u2019m betting on you to win.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Brown knows about people betting on him to lose from his days at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia. He spent his early school years in gifted programs and found himself taking high school classes while in middle school. By age 17, he had enough credits to head to college; he returned to Wheeler as a senior purely because he hadn\u2019t won a state basketball championship. <\/p>\n But none of that mattered in 2014, when a teacher said to Brown, then a Wheeler senior, that she\u2019d look him up in five years at the Cobb County Jail. And while Brown proved her wrong, he knows basketball was key. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t have sports as that vehicle,\u201d he says, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be here. Not saying I would be far off, because I come from a strong family that\u2019s big on education. I just wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d <\/p>\n He pauses. He says he does none of this for attention, but he also understands the power of his own story. If he only played sports\u2014or only ran a sports camp\u2014he might perpetuate the idea that Black and Brown athletes have to depend on their athleticism for success. Can\u2019t they be moguls and execs and astronauts and scientists, too? \u201cThey think, This could be me,\u201d says Varnado-Brown of the kids in the Bridge Program. \u201cAnd that gives them a whole new way to think.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown, on the Celtics\u2019 practice court, sporting his own brand\u2019s 741 Rover sneakers while working on his finishing.<\/p>\n Steven Counts<\/p>\n To Brown, such moments of awakening are key to marginalized communities pushing beyond their horizons. He recalls his own such awakening seven years ago, when he was still a Celtics benchwarmer in 2017. That\u2019s when a close friend and former high school teammate, YouTuber Trevin Steede, committed suicide. The death stunned Brown, who would spend the next few months reading and studying. \u201cThat led me to a lot of rabbit holes and learning about stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it was basically, you know, I really got more into astrology and learning in astronomy and learning about the stars.\u201d Brown pauses. He knows how this can sound, knows he mentioned astrology and astronomy in one breath. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to explain it any other way without it sounding crazy.\u201d <\/p>\n Steede\u2019s death motivated him to pursue his passions. And those passions almost always push you to think differently, even if it takes time to ripple out. In August 2024, he teamed up with Jason Kidd (who, like Brown, attended UC Berkeley) to launch Boston XChange to create opportunities for people of color. Brown and Kidd hope to generate $5 billion in generational wealth for communities of color. The XChange started by offering a handful of entrepreneurs up to $100,000 in grant funding for three years; it also offered them workplace and business services valued at more than $150,000. All of this, Brown hopes, will give creators of color more opportunity to grow their businesses. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen my body get CHALLENGED<\/a> in new ways by MUAY THAI<\/a> that normal training can\u2019t do. I\u2019m starting to move more into my MASCULINITY,<\/a> more into, like, my PHYSIQUE.<\/a> My body is PRIMING.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHere in Boston, the wealth disparity is extremely distorted, and it\u2019s been created that way systemically,\u201d he says. \u201cTo be able to use my resources and people who also care about this to redirect and change the city is a passion of mine.\u201d <\/p>\n The trendy word to describe somebody moving and shaking like Brown, especially in tech-rich Boston, would be \u201cdisrupter.\u201d But Brown actually bristles at this tag when it\u2019s mentioned. \u201cNo,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m solutions-based. Disruption is a part of the process of solution. But everything I do is a solution to what I view as a problem.\u201d <\/p>\n BROWN BRINGS THIS same problem-solving approach to his physical training. During the 2024 offseason, he doubled down on his fitness, especially the water work and Muay Thai training\u2014both are newish pieces in his regimen. Brown first worked with famed water-training innovator and legendary big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton <\/a>and his wife, Gabrielle Reece, three years ago; they helped him develop his stamina with grueling underwater strength sessions and breath work. This offseason, he did intense underwater training sessions in Bahrain with Luca Padua, also a big-wave surfer and one of Hamilton\u2019s prot\u00e9g\u00e9s. Now he does underwater drills with his trainer, Drew Moore, a few times a week. <\/p>\n His Muay Thai journey started after the Celtics were stunned by the underdog Miami Heat in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals. In an effort to enhance his footwork, he reached out to Lionel Young, a fight trainer. Young suggested that he try Muay Thai, pointing out that it would help Brown\u2019s hip mobility. In every offseason since then, Brown has worked with Young about three times a week. Today he\u2019s throwing a mix of roundhouse kicks and quick punches. Barely 10 minutes in, he\u2019s drenched. \u201cI\u2019ve seen my body get challenged in new ways that normal training can\u2019t do,\u201d he says. \u201cI think I\u2019m moving towards my prime. I\u2019m starting to move more into my masculinity, more into, like, my physique. My body is priming. Nothing else can really throw me off outside of that.\u201d <\/p>\n Part of that priming is wearing sneakers from his own self-funded brand, 741. Its first offering, the $200 Rover, is now available for preorder<\/a>. It\u2019s an eye-catching shoe with an all-black knit exterior made of abrasion-resistant yarn and several colored metallic drops. Brown helped design it and wore the Rover throughout the preseason, and he\u2019s now wearing it for games. After his workout, Brown hits the lunchroom of the Celtics\u2019 Auerbach Center to fuel up on salmon and to try not to talk about his beef with Nike. <\/p>\n Brown, practicing Muay Thai with trainer Lionel Young, says the martial art has helped his footwork and hip mobility.<\/p>\n The Rover is a sneaker born of both entrepreneurial spirit and frustration. Since leaving Adidas in 2021, Brown hasn\u2019t worked with a sneaker brand. Often he\u2019s played in Nikes with the Swoosh removed. The reigning NBA Finals MVP says he\u2019s negotiated with \u201cevery brand\u201d but has passed on \u201cprobably millions of dollars worth of deals\u201d because none would let him actively design his signature shoe. \u201cThey wasted my time,\u201d he says of every company from Under Armour to Puma to (yes) Nike. \u201cThey pretended that they would listen. Once it gets to the contract, they\u2019re like, \u2018Well, our superstars that we have here that are\u2014that at the time were bigger than I was\u2014this is the contract they have.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n And instead of following in the footsteps of athletes who play by corporate rules (think LeBron saying, \u201cIt\u2019s family when you talk about Nike,\u201d<\/a> and Jordan reminding us that Republicans buy shoes, too), Brown started 741. He says the name means something to him: The 7 symbolizes spiritual awakening, the 4 is about hard work, and the 1 represents new beginnings. <\/p>\n The brand is Brown\u2019s most aggressive attempt to prove that his influence extends beyond sports\u2014and it draws on an idea that Kobe Bryant was hatching shortly before his death. After 17 years with Nike, Bryant had reportedly planned to split from the Swoosh and launch Mamba, a player-owned shoe brand. Brown hopes 741 can realize that plan and eventually grow into a force that can sign other players to the shoe deals he was never offered\u2014and the shoe deals he says players want. It\u2019s a bold vision, but it remains to be seen whether Brown truly wants to sign other athletes\u2014or do anything beyond making his own shoe. Underwater training at the Celtics facility in Boston helps Brown with his stamina and mental strength.<\/p>\n Then again, even daring to make his own shoe is progress in the battle against the big footwear brands. And while it\u2019s hard to see an athlete with a $300 million contract as an underdog, he is posting up to sneaker brands that are billion-dollar entities. <\/p>\n As a vice president of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), Brown regularly speaks to current and former NBA players\u2014and some have complained to him about their restrictive shoe deals, which he says often bar players from wearing other brands in public, even after the brands have shelved those players\u2019 shoes. Brown has \u201cthe respect of his peers, especially the young players,\u201d says Andre Iguodala, the executive director of the NBPA. \u201cHe\u2019s a leader of this generation to guide the next. That\u2019s where he\u2019s very impactful with leading this new group of guys, and they\u2019ve been very receptive to all the knowledge that he\u2019s trying to pass off to them.\u201d<\/p>\n But success in the sneaker game without big-brand backing isn\u2019t easy. Stephon Marbury, who played for five NBA teams in the 2000s, briefly had a budget shoe line with Steve and Barry\u2019s. Kyrie Irving, a close friend of Brown\u2019s, was let go by Nike in 2022 and signed a five-year deal last year with the Chinese sportswear company ANTA. He\u2019s its flagship athlete, although his shoes aren\u2019t exactly on blacktops around the country.<\/p>\n Brown doesn\u2019t care about those limitations. \u201cTo me, the whole \u2018If you\u2019re Nike, you\u2019ve got to wear only Nike or Puma\u02bc\u2014it\u2019s like there need to be some more options,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of boring. The same designs. I\u2019d love to see new brands emerge that are represented, owned, by athletes. If I can spark that, great.\u201d <\/p>\n Even if that means more Nike hate. He declines to elaborate on the rumor that he was left off this year\u2019s Olympic team because of his perceived beef with Nike. (MH reached out to Nike for a comment but did not hear back.) But Brown does say many players fear backlash. \u201cThey know how the system is, and they don\u2019t want to get outcasted if you stand up against the way things are done,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t have any fear about any of that.\u201d <\/p>\n Iguodala strikes a note of caution and respect. \u201cObviously we know the Jim Browns, the Muhammad Alis, the [Colin] Kaepernicks\u2014those who have suffered financially or whose careers have been cut short because they\u2019ve been outspoken. I\u2019m not putting Jaylen in that bucket, but you can say this is something that\u2019s similar. I\u2019ve just been proud of him for how he stayed true to who he is.\u201d <\/p>\n IF YOU WATCHED the NBA Finals, you may have noticed Brown wearing what looked like a black plastic necklace pregame and during his press conferences. It\u2019s a device made by a Canadian wellness wearables company called Hapbee Technologies<\/a>, and Brown is its chief innovation officer. Prior to his training session, Brown invited me to join him for part of a four-hour workshop with eight people from Hapbee\u2019s leadership team in the ninth-floor conference room of a skyscraper in downtown Boston.<\/p>\n Riz Shah, Hapbee\u2019s chief commercial officer, says he connected with Brown over his curiosity about technology and desire to \u201cbuild a company with soul.\u201d \u201cHapbee needs to have a purpose,\u201d says Shah. \u201cWe\u2019re out there to help people. This phrase about helping people be the best version of themselves, that\u2019s Jaylen. That\u2019s the leadership, and then making sure that everyone buys in. J was pushing us to, like, be more, have sort of the effects\u2014that the visual effects be more engaging. Hapbee being more elegant in design. He\u2019s really into details.\u201d<\/p>\n The company\u2019s signature tech is called frequency therapy, and it\u2019s being developed for medical uses by neurobiologist Xavier A. Figueroa, PhD, an affiliate assistant professor at the University of Washington. Magnetic coils deliver energy waves to your nerve cells to stimulate various emotional states, such as focused (mimicking an effect of nicotine), alert (caffeine), happy (alcohol), and calm (THC), as well as deep sleep (melatonin). There are currently 75 signals and signal combinations, and the waves are supposed to act on the brain at a cellular level. The coils live within the necklace, or within the housing of Hapbee\u2019s recently released $200 sleep pad. <\/p>\n Brown is the chief innovation officer for Hapbee, a wellness tech company that makes a necklace-like device that may modulate mood via magnetic waves.<\/p>\n Clinical research on the devices is ongoing, and MH\u2019s brain health advisor, P. Murali Doraiswamy, MD, a professor at the Duke University Institute for Brain Sciences, notes that while there is evidence that this kind of therapy can increase brain activity, it\u2019s harder to pinpoint specific benefits, such as healing or mood enhancement. He adds that the placebo effect may produce a benefit as well, typically seen in 30 percent of people. Still, the therapy is gaining popularity with biohackers like Dave Asprey, who is an investor in the company. \u201cThe Hapbee wearable is my go-to piece of tech for modifying my mental state,\u201d Asprey gushed on his podcast. \u201cWant more energy? Dial it up. More rest? Done. Same thing for focus, sleep, stress.\u201d And Target recently started stocking the sleep pad.<\/p>\n Hapbee and Brown hope this leadership meeting can help develop a strategy to fast-track mainstream acceptance, and a PowerPoint presentation from chief science officer Brian Mogen, PhD, breaks down the device\u2019s inner workings. Brown scrawls notes on a white legal pad during the presentation\u2014then looks up. Brown offers a compelling and memorable catchphrase for the product (but we can\u2019t reveal it because of a nondisclosure agreement). Heads nod. The company\u2019s been looking for a sexy, accessible description for its science. This may be it. Brown picked up the CIO role last spring, when he invested in the company. He made that investment partly because he was offered an active role in device design. \u201cI\u2019m a designer,\u201d he says. \u201cI designed my shoes, I\u2019ve designed clothes, I design curriculums. Once they heard about my design r\u00e9sum\u00e9, they thought it was fitting that I would be responsible for designing the next iterations of the devices for the next 5 to 10 years.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe players know how the SYSTEM<\/a> is, and they don\u2019t want to get OUTCASTED<\/a> if you STAND UP<\/a> against the way things are done. I don\u2019t have any FEAR<\/a> about any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n If Hapbee is successful, Brown will extend his influence into the wellness world, following in the footsteps of crossover influencers like Gwyneth Paltrow and Tom Brady. Not that Hapbee has created major buzz yet. The company\u2019s market cap is currently $9.81 million, and it seems most likely to break through as a maker of sleep aids. Brown did tell me that he naps for nearly two hours daily\u2014all that training, all those meetings. Maybe the device helps with that. And in a small but powerful way, it\u2019s helping him be that better version of himself. \u201cI noticed having even more brain capacity to focus even longer and retain more information,\u201d he says. \u201cNaps are, like, lifesaving.\u201d <\/p>\n And all the things that Brown does, from the NBA titles he\u2019s seeking to the money he\u2019s raising for the underprivileged to the programs he\u2019s setting up, are part of his legacy. He refuses to choose between dominance on the court and impact off it. He\u2019ll make his mark in both worlds. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we have to separate,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just Jaylen as a human being. What solutions did he create? That\u2019s how I want to be viewed. I would like for my legacy to be, in 10 years or 20 years from now, that we look at Jaylen Brown as a pioneer for how athletes look at themselves and understand the value they have.\u201d <\/p>\n No Nike deal needed. <\/p>\n Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., is the fitness director of Men’s Health and a certified trainer with more than 10 years of training experience. He’s logged training time with NFL athletes and track athletes and his current training regimen includes weight training, HIIT conditioning, and yoga. Before joining Men’s Health, he served as a sports columnist and tech columnist for the New York Daily News. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IT’S A FEW WEEKS before the start of the NBA season, and Jaylen Brown is dripping on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[36824,7,45,75,3798,46,36822,36825,35354,10989,6,3121,36823],"class_list":{"0":"post-208663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-and-the-world","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-celtics","12":"tag-bostonceltics","13":"tag-celtics","14":"tag-content-type-apple-news-issue","15":"tag-contentid-f8d894ee-6b51-4ae3-a933-4e60c727b74a","16":"tag-displaytype-long-form-article","17":"tag-locale-us","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nike","20":"tag-shorttitle-jaylen-brown-vs-the-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114958267092800695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"boston,](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hlh099924applenewsjaylenbrown-008-673ca1f4b8886.jpg\" "\\"boston,")
Peter Casey-Pool\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"breaker\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/breaker-673bb1a832971.png\" "\\"breaker\\"")
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Steven Counts<\/p>\n
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Steven Counts<\/p>\n![\"jaylen](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hlh099924applenewsjaylenbrown-005-673ca29719c3a.jpg\" "\\"jaylen")
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Steven Counts<\/p>\n
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Steven Counts<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"boston,](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hlh099924applenewsjaylenbrown-009-2-673ca369973d5.jpg\" "\\"boston,")
Maddie Malhotra\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"magazine](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hlh1124applenewscover04-social-fin-673bb0925f774.jpg\" "\\"magazine")
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