Jaylen Brown Refuses to Be a Pawn

It was a shock to many to see Jaylen Brown, the Sixers’ $57.7 million small forward, falling through the skies of Egypt to conquer one of his greatest fears.

Skydiving was just another risky move—perhaps his most physically daring—that tested Brown’s limits and reminded him of his inner strength.

His fear of heights had ruled over him. But he was prepared to power through, just as he'd done with every other obstacle in his life. Even if that meant taking on risks others wouldn’t dare.

Soaring over Egypt’s historic pyramids was just another test with Brown’s back against the wall.

Basketball pundits declared the Boston Celtics an afterthought following Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear. The Celtics were down their leading scorer and the team had just departed with three members of its championship core.

Brown pushed back.

He led the Celtics to the second seed without Tatum, averaging nearly 29 points per game and finishing sixth in MVP voting.

Well before Brown began making his mark under the brightest lights, there was Dr. Derek Van Rheenen, and a course that would be a microcosm of Brown’s impact.

Fighting pushback with pushback

Brown was a wide-eyed freshman on the men’s basketball team at The University of California, Berkeley. But he was unlike any athlete who had stepped foot on campus.

At 18 years old, Brown pushed hard to take Van Rheenen’s graduate course, Theoretical Foundations for the Cultural Study of Sport in Education. The course focused on examining the intersection of sports and academics—specifically regarding race, gender and social class.

Brown and Van Rheenen first met during Brown’s college recruitment process when he visited the university. Berkeley alum and two-time NBA champion Isiah Thomas formed a relationship with Brown during the process and connected him to Dr. Van Rheenen.

The decorated professor stressed the importance of Brown maximizing his time at Berkeley, and encouraged him to push through any hurdles to accomplish his goals.

When Brown came to Van Rheenen looking to take the graduate class, he initially hesitated because Brown was only a freshman. Little did Van Rheenen know, his message to Brown during their initial meeting would come back to follow him.

“He said, ‘Wait a minute. You told me that if anybody told me that I couldn’t do it, that I was gonna push back, and I’m pushing back. I want to do it’,” Van Rheenen recalled Brown saying. “And I’m like, ‘Well, that’s a good point’.”

Brown had always been looking to challenge himself, and this time was no different.

Dr. Van Rheenen wanted to protect him from stereotypes—specifically, that Berkeley would cater a curriculum to accommodate a student-athlete.

“So I said here’s the deal: If you go to the faculty athletic representative and you tell him—at this point, it was a physics professor, Bob Jacobson—that you want to take this course and that I’m willing to let you take my course. And if he says ok, you can take the course.”

Van Rheenen figured the hoops Brown would have to jump through to obtain approval would prove too much.

Instead, his response only fueled Brown’s inextinguishable fire. The relentless student refused to give in.

Not only did Brown follow Van Rheenen’s instructions, but he exhausted other avenues throughout his crusade to take the course. He enlisted help from Isiah Thomas, who lobbied on Brown's behalf to the College of Letters and Sciences for acceptance into the seminar.

Jacobson needed to make sure Brown understood the challenge ahead of him if he wanted to take the graduate course and be a student-athlete.

An agreement had finally been reached. Brown achieved success by following his gut and pushing the limits.

“Everybody saw him as a shining star”

Van Rheenen beams when thinking back to Brown as a student in his class.

He describes Brown as ‘curious’; intellectually, socially and politically curious. He was taken aback by Brown’s maturity and spirit at just 18 years old.

Brown wrote his final paper for the class through the lens of chess, which serves as a metaphor for his life.

Brown was first introduced to the game by his beloved grandfather when he was a child. He became president of his high school’s chess club. On par with his competitive nature, Brown challenged people around Berkeley to matches.

“Chess is an ancient game. Chess is a thinking person's game,” Van Rheenen said. “It’s also extremely strategic and it looks forward. We live in a society that is so here and now. In the moment, our attention spans are extremely short and a lot of people don’t think—not even the next step, they’re not thinking about what consequence may come from this, and that can happen on a field of play.”

Van Rheenen was continually impressed by Brown, but he wasn’t the only person who noticed his uniqueness.

Students older than him in the class, including former and current athletes, gravitated toward him. People who had every reason not to care about a teenager, but still did.

“Everybody saw him as a shining star, and it was sort of like we all took him under our wing in a way,” Van Rheenen fondly remembered. “But he held his own. He never missed a class that I can remember, and he was very engaged.”

To this day, Brown is the only freshman to have ever taken the course at Berkeley. He blazed his own trail—he always does.

As big of an impact he made on his professor and fellow classmates, he was just scratching the surface of the ripples he would create.

“I don’t ever hear anybody talking about how smart a white player has been”

Brown’s desire to learn and push the envelope didn’t just end with fighting to get into the course. The intellectual Brown found the intersection between the political realm of sports and being an athlete.

While Brown underwent the NBA draft process in 2016, criticism emerged: Was he too intellectual for professional sports? NBA general managers questioned his commitment to basketball, marveling at how a 19-year-old ready to enter the NBA could be so multi-faceted.

The same criticism he faced a decade ago has escalated a decade into his professional basketball career, with sports talk show host Colin Cowherd going so far as to suggest Brown may have a disease.

The NBA appeared to make strides against the culture of censorship in the aftermath of Fox news host Laura Ingraham telling LeBron James to “shut up and dribble” after he criticized President Donald Trump.

But the reality Brown has come to learn is that sports leagues will say they welcome athletes’ voices—as long as they adhere to the desired script.

Perhaps no NBA player has been scolded for their innocuous passions as much as Brown has. Where Brown is doing what he feels is right as an outspoken voice for causes important to him—education and politics—much of the sports world views it as a brash indiscretion.

If you ask Van Rheenen why that is, his answer traces back to the lessons he taught in the seminar.

“I think on the first level, I think it's racist because I don’t ever hear anybody talking about how smart a white player has been,” he explained. “So the fact that he’s a young African American man who was very opinionated and thoughtful and curious—I think challenged individuals who had been used to controlling people and ultimately making money off of people.”

Brown first ruffled feathers when he decided to represent himself in the NBA draft

Between the amount of money agents would take from him and the limited value he believed they provided, Brown once again took the road less traveled. A move that Van Rheenen thinks was an early harbinger in the smear campaign against him.

“I think he essentially upset the status quo when he didn’t select an agent and he did his homework and he talked to people—including in the players association. But he also had a group of individuals who were supporting him and saying, ‘You know, I don’t think is going to hurt you—and in fact, given what they’re promising and what they want from you, I think that it may not be such a great deal’,” Van Rheenen explained.

So why would those around the league take issue with Brown’s personal choice?

Brown refuses to settle at first stop. He will seek as much information as he needs in order to make decisions confidently—even if that means questioning authority.

“He was mature and confident enough in himself, and that confidence I think irritated people who like to, frankly, take advantage of young people and make money off of them,” Van Rheenen argued. “Jaylen has always thought outside of the box. I think that is always a challenge to an organization that likes to essentially be in control of the narrative. When they’re not in control of the narrative or there’s someone who might say something that doesn’t go strictly along with that narrative, he can be dangerous.”

‘Dangerous’ doesn’t equate to ‘problematic’, though.

“The industry of sport loves to be authoritarian”

Van Rheenen sees Brown as using his platform as a public intellectual.

“We need more of that among our elite athletes; not less of it. Not people to be told to shut up and just play—that’s not what we’re trying to have individuals who are role models for kids. We don’t want role models who don’t have a voice and an opinion on matters that matter.”

The nature of the public’s contempt for Brown's outspokenness is disheartening, but not shocking.

“It's not a new narrative,” Van Rheneen divulged. “The industry of sport loves to be authoritarian and, traditionally, it’s had coaches that are essentially ‘my way or the highway’. Leagues and franchises are the same. Trying to basically silence people, trying to have gag orders, trying to keep them away from the microphone, setting up a persona or image that doesn’t necessarily speak for the individuals in the locker room. I think that’s problematic.”

Brown famoBrown famously engaged in a public feud with sports television personality Stephen A. Smith, after he claimed that the five-time All-Star is disliked among unnamed sources. Brown then donned a t-shirt with the phrase “State your source” at the Celtics’ 2024 championship parade, alluding to Smith’s comments.usly engaged in a public feud with sports television personality Stephen A. Smith, after he claimed that the five-time All-Star is disliked among unnamed sources. Brown then donned a t-shirt with the phrase “State your source” at the Celtics’ 2024 championship parade, alluding to Smith’s comments.

Brown famously engaged in a public feud with sports television personality Stephen A. Smith, after he claimed that the five-time All-Star is disliked among unnamed sources. Brown then donned a t-shirt with the phrase “State your source” at the Celtics’ 2024 championship parade, alluding to Smith’s comments.

State your source https://t.co/7ay3dXr6YN
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) May 26, 2024

Brown is comfortable in his skin; unfazed by the fast-paced gratifications of being a high-profile athlete in society. He knows that what is most important isn’t the legacy he will leave on the court, but off it. At some point, the ball will stop bouncing

What Brown will be left with is the imprint he made and the lives he touched.

Van Rheenen wants people to remember that games are not life-or-death situations. Speaking out for matters outside of sports is courageous—not reprehensible.

A chess-loving critical thinker whose side quests include lecturing at prestigious colleges isn’t exactly the glamorous product the NBA finds marketable. But that doesn’t mean his passions are any less meaningful.

Athletes have long been commodified and socialized to believe that following in the footsteps of their superiors is the only way. The correct way.

In some ways, Brown’s resistance to that notion is seen as retaliatory.

“I understand why people want to simplify and just say we’re out here to provide a product which is a basketball game, but it is more than that,” Van Rheenen said. “At the end of the day we are complicated human beings that are engaged in a social practice that, at the end of the day, is not that serious.”

He’s right.

“It’s a sport. There are other people that are dying in the world, there are other things that are happening right around the arena where this is happening,” Van Rheenen said. “I don’t mind when people actually bring out that world back into this game. It’s, to me, refreshing to hear if somebody can speak about life writ large.”

“I don’t like compromising my voice for nothing or nobody.”

Dr. Van Rheenen acknowledges that progress has been made in the acceptance of athletes championing important causes—particularly in the WNBA and women’s professional soccer. The two leagues have played a significant role in advocacy for the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community.

What has become evident is that professional athletes aren’t puppets on a string in a large-scale production. They control their narrative. They run their own show.

“It’s not that I should just do my thing and be a performer and not say a word or think deeply about something,” voiced Dr. Van Rheenen. “That's not what we want. I hope that’s not what we want—and Jaylen is definitely not that.”

Over the years, Jaylen has expanded outside of basketball and offered lectures at MIT, Harvard University, and his alma mater, Berkeley. He turned down lucrative offers from major sneaker companies like Nike to start his own brand, 741.

Though Brown was presented with a deal that would have paid him $50 million over the course of several seasons, it came with a price too hefty for him to accept. Brown’s speech was to essentially be restricted so as not to say anything that challenged Nike’s ethos.

“When you sign these contracts, there’ll be, like, these literal catchphrases in there: If you say anything controversial that disrupts the ecosystem of our company, we can terminate your deal,” Brown said. “So that kind of makes you not have a voice. A lot of our celebrities and our athletes, they never speak up and they never say anything because of whatever their contract is if they do. I don’t like compromising my voice for nothing or nobody.”

When he was a sneaker free agent testing various companies’ shoes, he concealed the Nike logo on Kobe Bryant’s retro sneakers. If he wasn’t signed to them, there was no reason to give them free advertising.

While speaking at Harvard back in 2018, he discussed America’s fallible education system and the influence that black athletes have. He also shared his thoughts on Ingraham’s “shut up and dribble” remarks.

“This has been the notion in our society for the last 10 or 15-so years,” Brown said of the stigma that athletes should stick to sports. “That athletes are not allowed to have an opinion, not allowed to have a voice. Even me coming up here today, I had concerns that there would be some kind of pushback…To be honest, I’m not afraid. This has been the notion for too long and it is time to change.”

Brown had been a key leader at the forefront of the change he wishes to see in the world. He has shown no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

During a recent Twitch livestream, the former Celtic dispelled rumors that he sees himself as a know-it-all who tries to outsmart his peers. If people feel threatened by Brown’s curiosity and intelligence, he believes that says more about them than it does about him.

“I never told anybody I’m the smartest person in the room,” he refuted. “That may be how they took it, but let’s keep it a buck: In sports—no offense to everybody in sports—but the bar is f— low. You know what I mean? The bar isn’t that high.”

“Embrace someone like Jaylen Brown. He is not just a basketball player.”

During his decade-long tenure with the Celtics, Brown immersed himself in the community, investing in some of the city’s most impoverished areas. He launched The 7uice Foundation in 2019. Brown also partnered with former Celtics teammate Jrue Holiday to help support businesses in Boston. Together, they formed the Boston Creator Accelerator, a program that provides grants, resources, and guidance to underrepresented entrepreneurs.

“He’s made a difference in that community,” Van Rheenen praised. “I would anticipate he would want to do the same [in Philadelphia]. And so for the fans I would say: Embrace someone like Jaylen Brown. He is not just a basketball player. He is not looking just to come to another team and pick up a check. He’s looking to make a difference in the community—particularly around education and equity and community; that’s his value added. It’s not just what’s happening on the court.”

Through being an All-Star in the NBA, winning a championship, and leveraging his platform for the greater good, there is one thing Van Rheenen is most proud of when it comes to Brown.

“He has remained himself,” Van Rheenen affirmed.

“The system hasn’t changed him—and lots of us get changed by the system and he hasn’t. He’s paying the price at times. Not everybody likes that. Lots of people would prefer a yes-man. Lots of people would prefer someone who doesn’t rock the boat. Lots of people would prefer someone who doesn’t raise a voice to injustice.”

Van Rheenen is eager to watch Brown join forces with a juggernaut Sixers team that puts him in strong position to win a second title.

To some degree, forming an alliance with his new squad will be similar to one of his favorite pastimes, playing chess. The collective pieces work together toward a centralized goal, relying on each other and compensating for the limitations of the pieces around them.

While it has become common practice for athletes to take on a role in broadcasting in their post-playing days, Van Rheenen envisions Brown taking a different route after hanging up the jersey: Working as an educational leader of sorts, in the nonprofit sector or dabbling in the finance sector.

But no matter what has been made of Brown or where he stands in the eyes of the public, he’ll have a mentor in his corner wherever he goes.

“For me, he’s a hero,” Van Rheeen said.

Editor's note: The featured image initially appeared, uncredited, as a thumbnail photo forAskwith Essentials: Who Is Jaylen Brown, a forum done at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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