The 27-year-old player will try to win his first North American league ring, but in addition to standing out on the field, he has a very peculiar life story.
Before being one of the figures of the NBA, before signing the most expensive contract in the history of the most important basketball league in the world and before reaching the final in which he will seek his first ring and turn the Boston Celtics into the most winning franchise, Jaylen Brown They threatened him that he would end up in prison.
It was in April 2014, two years before being chosen third in the Draft, when he himself recalled that fact: “My teacher said she would look for me at the Cobb County Jail in 5 years… Wow”. However, now that he has become one of the stars of world basketball, he reflected on that episode that reflects his different outlook than most athletes: “Sometimes, because the education system is so poor, especially in Georgia, teachers have too many kids and too little help. I’m not blaming one of them.”
Raised in Marietta, Georgia, one of the most economically disadvantaged areas, he received a scholarship that allowed him to excel at the University of California, Berkeley, from where he made the jump to the NBA. But there he not only practiced the sport that catapulted him to fame, but he also shone in chess.
In mid-2023 it was news because He had signed a five-year contract in exchange for 304 million dollars and became the most expensive in the history of the league.since it surpassed the record that had been set Denver Nuggets the previous summer when renewing the link to Nikola Jokicalso for five seasons, but for US$270 million.
One of the facets that others have highlighted the most about Brown is his intelligence. In fact, before being drafted, one NBA assistant general manager said he was “very smart” for the league and another added: “Because he’s so smart, he might be intimidating to some teams.. “He wants to know why you’re doing something instead of just doing it.”.
Despite these criticisms, the Celtics still added him and he returned their trust with good sporting results. Likewise, his description of his intellect was not inaccurate, since he finished his high school studies as one of the best, he studied a master’s degree, several disciplines such as yoga and philosophy, and Even NASA offered him an internship, since he was a member of MIT’s media laboratories (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for its acronym in Spanish) and the youngest to give a lecture at Harvard.
Jaylen Brown playing the piano, one of his hobbies
Jaylen Brown’s role as a social activist
His interests go beyond what happens with sport and on several occasions he has proven to be an activist against racism and social inequality. Following the May 25, 2020, murder of George Floyd by police brutality, which inspired Black Lives Matter, Brown joined the march in his native Georgia.
“When I grew up and went to the University of California I learned about more subtle racism and how it seeps into our educational system through division into learning groups, hidden curricula, social stratification and things that I was not aware of idea before. It really shook me, because one of the most subtle but aggressive forms of racism is our educational system”he said a while ago.
He is so involved that even in 2019 he became a member of the MIT Media Lab and together with the university created the Bridge Program to advise young black people and students who intend to pursue careers related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
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