Giannis Antetokounmpo could’ve said so many names when asked about the current best player in the NBA, I don’t know, maybe three-time MVP Nikola Jokic? Mavericks star Luka Doncic? But no, the Bucks forward strongly believes that Jaylen Brown should hold this title, even though Boston’s All-Star has never received an MVP vote.
In an interview published this week, The Greek Freak gave his take before the start of the campaign. “I feel like the best player is the guy that wins a championship, wins it all, and is the best player for his team,” Giannis expressed. “So the best player in the NBA, probably I would say Jaylen Brown.”
So, if we follow Antetokounmpo’s logic, then yes, JB was the MVP during the past NBA Finals, in which the Celtics defeated their Texan rivals in only 5 games. “It doesn’t matter if you got the MVP or All-NBA,” the Milwaukee star continued. “If you don’t make your team win, you’re not the best.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo calls Jaylen Brown the best player in the league 👀 pic.twitter.com/YgdQbbpHNq
— DraftKings (@DraftKings) October 24, 2024
16 years later, after Boston had conquered the 2008 Larry O’Brien Trophy, the club can finally celebrate by watching their 18th banner be raised to the top of the TD Garden rafters. This Tuesday night saw some of the greatest Boston legends commemorate before the start of this season’s clash against the Knicks.
After beating the Knicks in the season opener, Brown shared his thoughts on the celebrations. “What an incredible night. The aura in the arena was amazing, having the legendary Celtics in the building … it’s almost like they were passing the torch,” he said. “My rookie year, when I got drafted, this is what I said I would do — I would go to war for this city, and it’s great to watch that banner get raised.”
That night the team tied the league’s historic record for amount of three-pointers made in a single game, but weren’t able to break it. “It was almost like we got jinxed or something,” Jaylen expressed, after dropping 23 points and contributed 5 of 9 from beyond the arc during their 132-109 victory over New York.
“When we were just playing, having fun, playing our style of basketball, everything was going in,” JB added in his post match interview. “The crowd got into it, and we started hunting them, we couldn’t even hit the bright side of the barn.”
The Celtics forward anticipated before the season start that he was going to embrace a villain role this year: ‘I want blood’
This has been a very emotionally summer for Jaylen Brown, as he’s been on some sort of a rollercoaster ride which included becoming an NBA champion and Finals MVP with the Celtics, as well as being snubbed off Team USA’s Olympian squad, who earned a gold medal in France back in August.
Not only was the Boston superstar not taken into consideration from the U.S. Men’s Basketball club, he was hoping to get his name called when Kawhi Leonard fell to injury in July and had to retire from his Olympic dream. This is when they decided to call his own teammate Derrick White, instead of the All-Star forward.
Based on Jaylen’s Twitter posts during this time, the player understood this wasn’t entirely a personal shot at him, but he did mentioned that Nike is probably one of the reasons why he hasn’t been taken into consideration. If you add his Eastern Conference finals MVP and Finals MVP trophies, it sure feels strange he wasn’t called to represent his nation.
Whatever the real reasons are, there sure was drama involved in this one, and Brown plans to use it as motivation. While answering to comments on his own Instagram post, he liked a comment that said, “JB villain year loading…” and then responded by warning the rest of the league: “I want blood.”
