INDIANAPOLIS — When Jaylen Brown heard his name, he was perplexed. As his teammates and coaches began to grab him and cheer him on, he stood there with a straight face. The face you might see from Brown after a poster dunk or a game-winning 3.
The Celtics star said he feels like he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. His coach constantly talks about getting rid of those expectations.
So when he heard Celtics legend Cedric Maxwell announce him as the Eastern Conference Finals MVP winner, it took him a second to accept the honor.
Then he said two simple words: “Oh shit…”.
“I was not excpecting that at all. I never win,” Brown said while sitting next to the Larry Bird MVP trophy after the Celtics’ 105-102 victory to sweep the Indiana Pacers and book a ticket to the NBA Finals. “So I’m just happy we won.”
It was precisely this reaction that endeared him to his teammates. Brown sets individual goals, but he has always insisted that it is only under the guise that it helps the team.
“I think it’s even better because he didn’t expect it,” Jrue Holiday said. “It really means it didn’t matter to him. It was about winning and no matter how long it took, that was what was important. So I think when you have that mentality and that mindset and you see great people being rewarded for the things that they do, it just brings joy.
In the most important moments, Brown looks calm. He was successful on several occasions with big shots for the Celtics. They won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals because he made one of the biggest shots of his career to send it to overtime.
But he did not receive the trophy because of his score. He earned his second trip to the NBA Finals of his career by doing the things he told everyone he could do all year: defend and play.
JB with the block and Derrick White with the clutch 3 on the other end!!! pic.twitter.com/9Mi8lfshfH
– Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) May 28, 2024
When Andrew Nembhard beat him downhill on a tricky changeup, Brown chased down and made the block. Then he came down the court, looked to give the ball to Jayson Tatum, then realized it was all on him.
With head coach Joe Mazzulla yelling at Tatum to give Brown space and Holiday to bring Myles Turner into the action, Brown collapsed the entire defense, just so he could give up the ball.
“It was special,” Jayson Tatum said. “We’ve already talked about it as a team, however long it takes, whatever we need to do to make sure we move forward and move forward.”
Two years ago, when the Celtics were beating his Bucks en route to their berth in the Finals, Holiday was often the one trying to defend Brown.
“I think our game plan then was to try to let JB do it on his own,” Holiday said. “He can literally get to the basket or into the paint whenever he wants. But doing that extra fade and trusting your teammates has been big for us.
This time it was Holiday setting up the screen to give Brown his window of attack. This development did not happen overnight.
The loss to the Golden State Warriors didn’t just spark a change in their previous Finals. But it changed his approach. Now, Brown spends the end of each practice running through pick-and-roll scenarios with the coaches. Last year it started with left-handed jump passes. This year it’s about handling double teams, adjusting to different coverages and everything in between.
“It’s because of him that he has a growth mindset, so he’s never afraid to work on a weakness,” Mazzulla said. “He’s never afraid to tackle something that makes him uncomfortable. And between him, (assistant coach) Tony (Dobbins) and the player development staff, they put him in every situation possible.
Coaches will wear big foam arms so he can handle openings like there were a bunch of Myles Turners out there. They will foul him aggressively so he can get used to the non-calls he will see with the game on the line.
Then, when it came time to attack Turner with a minute to go, he was able to fight through contact, find a loose dribble, then collapse the defense to find White open for 3.
“I knew he was unreal when I got here, but the good thing about JB is he’s gotten better every year since he’s been in this league, which is a testament to his hard work and of his dedication,” White said. “And he was unreal that whole series on both sides of the ball. A complete player that we don’t really see much of these days.
He knew he needed to become a more complete player when the Celtics decided last summer to trade Marcus Smart.
“He was one of the voices of our team. And when he wasn’t there, I wanted to make sure I stepped up,” Brown said. “I wanted to make sure everyone felt me and everyone knew what the standard was.”
Brown added that the Celtics haven’t skipped steps all season. That they played the right way (almost) in every game, even if it didn’t always result in a victory.
There were no public squabbles over role and opportunities. Players who were not defending would not see the field. Brown understood that for a team to be the best, the best players must meet the highest standards.
“I thought everyone (was) responsible,” Brown said. “And that’s the byproduct.”
Last week, when Brown didn’t make the All-NBA team, he said the snub didn’t bother him.
Brown had set a goal for this season. Even though All-NBA is the benchmark for most stars, he wanted to make an All-Defensive team.
He wanted to redefine who he was as a player. Scoring alone didn’t put him in position to win a championship.
The Game 7 loss to Miami that ended their season last year left an impression. Defense and ball care were the hurdles he had to overcome. So he said he wanted to be All-Defense and started publicly calling out every game from Zion Williamson to Nikola Jokić.
He didn’t care who it was. If they were great, he wanted to make their night painful. And he did it often. The problem was that with Jrue Holiday and Derrick White on his team, the Celtics didn’t have another guard on the All-Defensive team.
“It probably hurt me the most because it’s one of the things I defined this season that I wanted to be,” Brown said. “But as time went on and I got to this point, I stopped caring about it and just accepted it.”
Brown has increasingly let down his filter in recent years, asserting his goals, criticizing officiating and defending his teammates.
When ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said recently that an NBA source had texted him, Brown wasn’t as marketable as he should be because “He’s just not liked at all.” because of his ‘I’m better than you’ attitude,” Brown reposted the clip and wrote: “State your source After Game 4 he indirectly talked about it.
“Sometimes it makes people uncomfortable and sometimes I miss things,” Brown said. “I’m missing out on opportunities, awards, marketing deals or whatever. And at this point, I accept it. I am who I am and I will stay true to my beliefs. And I’m one of those people who would die for what they believe in.
He thought he was one of the top 10 defenders in the NBA this year. Ultimately, he received three votes for the first team, but didn’t come close to making it. That didn’t stop him from having a significant defensive impact in this series.
“We ask him a lot. Tonight he started guarding (Andrew) Nembhard, then he switched to (Pascal) Siakam, he was probably on Turner,” Al Horford said. “He was attacking different people everywhere. This versatility is what makes our team so strong.
Brown has always been good at flashy stuff. This year was about filling in the gaps that his teammates have maintained for years. Not everyone sees it, but they accept it.
“I don’t care who sees what. As long as my team knows my value, my city knows my value, my family, that’s all I really care about,” Brown said. “I like to just be a versatile two-way wing and I can do both at any time. The last four minutes of this match, you saw it.
Now that the Celtics are once again advancing to the NBA Finals, the defense will try to make Brown do it all on his own. But that’s not who he is anymore.
(Photo: Justin Casterline/Getty Images)