Jaylen Brown Said All the Right Things, but Summer Words Are Always Cheap

PHILADELPHIA — It was Jaylen Brown's perceived ego that got him excused from the only NBA home he's ever known five weeks ago.

Or, at least, that was a superficial reason given to justify the Boston Celtics' efforts to create some future relief on their cap sheet.

It's been said ad nauseum, but perhaps the truest assessment of the Celtics' situation was that they felt it was unrealistic to field a contending team with Jayson Tatum on his contract and Brown on his future contract. That, and the future commitment to Brown was maybe the only way to smooth over a relationship that Boston felt was increasingly rocky after twice dangling their homegrown prodigy in trade talks.

But the Celtics could've chosen Brown over Tatum, whose season has ended before the conclusions of Boston's last two playoff runs. They chose Tatum, who suffered an ambiguous leg injury that left his Celtics high and dry for a Game 7 at home.

The rest is history.

The discourse on Brown's game has sprayed like a rotating lawn sprinkler. That is inherently disrespectful to a player who has produced and achieved to the degree Brown has.

The advanced analytics don't love him. He fills up a box score.

The reality is probably that he lacks the consistency in his ancillary offensive skills necessary to justify having the usage of a franchise's top dog. Yet, you get the best out of him when you put the ball in his hands.

He's not a great 3-point shooter, and yet Brown eats possessions at an All-NBA level.

But that would be all too honest to admit publicly.

It was far easier to cast aspersions on the way Brown's personality and intelligence project.

There's a dissonance, a schism, between Brown desiring to educate himself and share that with others and his being perceived as full of himself.

You could tell that Brown was still bothered by some of the commentary levied upon his name over the past two months.

"Someone even went as far as to say I had a disease," Brown recalled at his introductory press conference at Francis J. Myers Recreation Center on Thursday. It was a reference to Fox Sports commentator Colin Cowherd citing anonymous sources as saying Brown had a disease in which he thought he was the smartest person in every room he walked into.

It's a toxic, problematic way of conflating intelligence with arrogance.

And yet, that arrogance was nowhere to be found as Brown entered the gymnasium in West Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon, high-fiving children donning shirts with his last name on them.

"For me and people who know my family and I, we are rooted in the community. That’s where we hang our hat, being able to affect other people’s lives. I think we’re very blessed. I think we’ve been able to help our own family and be able to change the course of what our generation or our family name could possibly do," Brown explained of why he chose to be in the community for his first impression in Philadelphia.

"But we look forward to being able to impact others and being able to touch families and households that we may never get to see. So being here at Francis J, as I’m still getting to learn this community, I just wanted to make it important that this was an important pillar in my life and community and the foundation."

Brown wanted his first moments as a Philadelphian to count. You only get one chance to make a first impression.

"So I just wanted to let people know in Philadelphia that this is something that’s important to me and my first introduction to this city through my press conference today, I think is just an example of that. So I’m happy to be here and thank you to the community for allowing me to be here and hold my space here," Brown added.

"But I’m looking forward to learning the community, meeting some people, like-minded individuals, and doing some work. So, that’s what we’re about.”

Brown emphasized 'respect', something he felt lacked at the end of his time in Boston. He twice said that he wants to approach this new journey with clear intentions. The goal is to influence winning.

It takes a basic degree of emotional intelligence to walk into a new situation, a new city and lead without ego. Brown shied away from the notion that he was there to fit any certain need or needs.

“We’ll figure out as time goes on, as we start to spend time with each other, get on the court, have conversations, et cetera. I’m excited to just be myself," Brown said.

"I think that’s one thing that I can promise the city and organization and the coaching staff, that I’m going to come in every single day and be myself, put my best foot forward, lead with my integrity, my mentality and lead with my capacity and will to win. So we’ll figure out the Xs and Os and the ins and outs, but winning is the agenda. That’s the first thing that’s on my mind.”

Egos can and often do get in the way of winning.

One of the Sixers' most formidable opponents this season could be themselves. Will egos leave them with regrets?

"It doesn’t have to be anybody’s team. It needs to be based in respect and work. That’s kind of like my approach. I want to earn everybody’s respect and trust, which takes time. Obviously it’s a lot of guys with talent, egos. But to win, you got to be able to sacrifice, you got to be able to have trust and communication," Brown said.

"I want to come in transparent, I want to come in with my agenda on the table. ‘Look, this is what I’m here to do, this is what I want to do.’ I want to win. We can figure out how to respectfully move around each other. But it takes a level of time to develop and earn respect from each other. But my approach has always been my work ethic."

For someone billed as being infected by his own intelligence and awareness, Brown stepped out in Philadelphia on a hot August day with the desire to earn respect in a new place—not expecting it to transfer from one city to another.

"Being the first to the gym, in the film room. I’m looking forward to learning from LeBron. I’m looking forward to learning from all those guys. But even LeBron, everything he’s endured during his career on and off the floor, like, one of my favorite things to do is learn. I can’t wait to just soak up as much information as I can and apply it to myself," Brown said.

It's incredibly easy to romanticize the possibilities in August. We'll see if the words are worth anything come November or December, come a losing streak, come the first touch of adversity. But for now, the guy with the supposed disease is saying all the right things.

“My focus is winning. So other people’s focus may be scoring. My focus is going into every practice, every meeting, every shootaround, every film session like how do we win night in and night out. Sometimes that may change. Sometimes that may look different. But whatever it takes. At this point in my career, nothing else really moves me," Brown said.

"I don’t care about the outside success. I never did. I don’t care about the MVP awards. The Finals MVP. None of that stuff really moves me. It’s nice. But the only thing that’s going to move me is doing something collectively. So a championship."

Brown, LeBron James and even Kentavious Caldwell-Pope will bring experiences that the rest of the roster has only imagined in its wildest dreams.

They know that it takes a special balance of push and pull to make this thing coalesce into what it can be if it recognizes its highest potential.

It will take much more than the names on the paper.

“Obviously, on paper, we’re excellent. We have a lot of talent compared to other teams in the league. But I’ve been around a long time. Long enough to know that just what you have on paper doesn’t mean anything. It can if you put the work in. But, also, if you allow distractions, you allow the media to get into your locker room, you allow certain things and the personalities don’t work, it can be a detriment," Brown said.

He's aware that it can go in any number of directions. The only thing Brown can control in all of this is how he leads. With his heart. With his work. With his mentality.

"It just takes an amount of work and the transparency and the leadership can really guide this thing or not. Obviously, on paper, we look great. But let’s all slow down. It takes real work every single day in order to make something like this happen. So, for me, the work has started already" said Brown.

It will take more than sweat equity built on a basketball court.

"I’m looking forward to doing whatever it is I need to do, whoever I need to talk to to make sure we get on the same page and now everybody’s focused on the same thing," he added.

"Because if we do that, then we’ll be where we want to be.”

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