Jaylen Brown: ‘We’re fighting against complacency’

Jaylen Brown: “I remember my first check in the NBA. It was like $182,000 or something like that, and I was 18 years old. I told them to mail it to me because I wanted to feel it, I wanted to touch it. Coming from a single-parent household, it was surreal to see that amount of money in my hands. I grew up in a situation where money was tight, so to suddenly have that, it was a crazy feeling. I remember thinking, ‘Welcome to the NBA.’ It’s not just about the money, though. It’s about what it represents—how far I’ve come and the opportunities it’s given me to help my family and others. That first check was a reminder of the hard work it took to get there, but also a motivation to keep pushing, to not get complacent.” -via YouTube / October 23, 2024

Jaylen Brown: “One of Coach Mazzula’s favorite quotes is like, ‘There’s no such thing as a foul. Either you die, or you don’t.’ He just has a bunch of crazy quotes and mentalities like that. One of the things he’s coined is, we call our offense the ‘killer whale offense,’ and we attack seals. Because killer whales, how they hunt seals, they do it together as a unit. We’ve actually studied how killer whales attack, and we’ve built our offense off that idea. It sounds a little wild, but there’s a method to his madness. And it works. It’s about being relentless, about working as a team, and staying aggressive, no matter what. And honestly, that’s the kind of mentality that helps you win championships. It’s that killer instinct, that ability to stay focused and keep attacking, no matter how tough the situation is.” -via YouTube / October 23, 2024

“I saw a lecture that you gave on panopticism at UC Berkeley. Do you have a favorite philosopher or philosophical theory that you find most thought-provoking? Jaylen Brown: Favorite philosopher… I’d say Socrates. He studied at the Library of Alexandria. Actually, I got to go there this summer. I spent a lot of time there. It’s not the same as the Library of Alexandria because it burned down, but there are still historical monuments and documents that exist. It was cool spending time there this summer. But in terms of philosophers, I think Tupac might be up there too. You know, he had a lot of deep thoughts about society, culture, and the world. I think philosophy isn’t just about the old guys like Socrates or Plato. It’s about anyone who thinks deeply about life and tries to understand it from different angles. That’s what I try to do too.” -via YouTube / October 23, 2024