Celtics Teammates React to Jaylen Brown's First Practice Since Knee Procedure

Four-time All-Star Boston Celtics small forward Jaylen Brown has had a bumpy road en route to his team's title defense.

The 6-foot-6 University of California at Berkeley product will miss out on what could have been just his second All-NBA honor, after a lingering right knee issue cost him nine of the Celtics' final 26 games and limited his games-played tally to just 63 healthy contests this regular season. Brown would have needed to appear in 65 games, at minimum, to make the cut for end-of-year honors like All-NBA and All-Defensive teams.

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The 28-year-old has revealed that he expects to be dealing with pain throughout the playoffs, an ominous admission for the second-best player on a 61-21 team. Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla opted to rest Brown for the Celtics' final three games of the regular season.

Brown received an injection in the knee to help deal with the pain, although Mazzulla would not reveal what medication specifically Brown received.

On Tuesday, Brown played his first full practice since the procedure this week. Brown had been under a 30-minute playing limit before being shut down at the end of the season.

Per Bobby Manning of CLNS, several of Brown's veteran former All-Star teammates seemed encouraged by what they saw.

NEW @CelticsCLNS -- Jaylen Brown practiced in full today following his knee injection last week and looked "great," according to Horford, Holiday.

"I think he’s fine. I’m pretty sure if you asked him, he’d be fine too.”https://t.co/iWEKp6BDYP
— Bobby Manning (@RealBobManning) April 15, 2025

“He looked great today,” reserve center Al Horford said. “I was very happy to see him out there doing everything. It’s a really good sign for us.”

Horford, 38, is a former five-time All-Star who has remained remarkably durable even in his 18th pro season. He's seen pretty much everything, so his reaction should relax concerned Celtics fans.

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“It’s tough,” Horford added. “I feel like there are a lot of things you have to deal with when you’re in that position and Jaylen is very strong mentally and I feel like he finds a way. He’s the type that he’s out here putting in the work and trying to get himself ready to go. He understands what’s in front of us and I feel like mentally he’s gonna be in a good place. So I’m just excited to see him go from this point forward.”

Another ailing Celtics vet, six-time All-Defensive Team and former two-time All-Star guard Jrue Holiday, is on the mend from an ailing pinkie finger. He had worn a cast for the last 15 games of the season, and Manning reports that he will still wear the cast during games, he will be able to be without it the rest of the time.

Holiday, too, appreciated Brown's efforts in practice.

“(Brown) looked good to me,” Holiday said. ” I think JB’s gonna be JB in terms of not showing weakness. Everything is about not showing weakness for him and being able to be at his strongest mentally and physically. So nobody’s worried about him. We all know that he wants to be out on the court every time that we play, but we also know he’s gonna be prepared when the time comes. I think he’s fine. I’m pretty sure if you asked him, he’d be fine too.”

Across 63 healthy games this regular season, Brown averaged 22.2 points on .463/.324/.764 shooting splits, 5.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists a night.

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