INDIANAPOLIS — When the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP award was announced after the Celtics beat the Pacers, Jaylen Brown was noticeably surprised to earn the award. He cracked a joke after the game — “I don’t never win (expletive),” he said — as he finally got an individual accolade in this high-profile stage.
But Brown had a stellar East Finals, stepping up for the Celtics throughout the entire series. And he came up huge in Game 4 on Monday to sweep the Pacers, pouring in 29 points and six rebounds. His teammates gushed about his overall impact, allowing Brown to shed his label as just a scorer.
“He’s impacting the game not only on offense but on defense, and he’s doing it at a very high level,” Al Horford said. “We ask a lot of him. Tonight, he started out guarding (Andrew) Nembhard, then he switched up to (Pascal) Siakam, he probably was on (Myles) Turner. He was on different people all over. That versatility is what makes us so tough as a team, I think, is because we have multiple guys that can do that and Jaylen does it at a very high level.”
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“He’s unreal,” Derrick White said. “I knew he was unreal when I got here, but the great thing about JB is he’s gotten better every single year that he’s been in this league, which is a testament to his hard work and dedication. And he was unreal this whole series on both sides of the ball. A complete player that you don’t really see much these days.”
Brown has heard all the criticism throughout his career. He’s accomplished plenty in the league, including a second-team All-NBA selection last season that earned him his supermax contract. But the critics endured, saying he didn’t have his left hand, that was he was overpaid and, most recently, that he’s not a marketable star because of his pompous attitude.
But Brown has seemingly knocked away all those detractors as part of a career season. There was certainly some frustration he wasn’t named to an All-NBA team. Turns out, he was actually most upset about being left off the All-Defensive teams, which was a goal he set out for before this season. Regardless, though, Brown has had a stellar season — and he (finally) added to his trophy case as his efforts were rewarded Monday.
“At this point, I’m in that phase of my life where I just embrace all forms of negativity or whatever the case is,” Brown said. “Some stuff I don’t understand, it ain’t meant to me to understand it. But I just know who I am and what I stand for. Sometimes, it makes people feel uncomfortable and sometimes I miss out on things, I miss out on opportunities, awards, marketing deals or whatever the case may be.
“And at this point, I just embrace it. I am who I am and I’m going to stand on my beliefs. And I’m one of those people who would die for what they believe in. So I just embrace it at this point and I’m grateful that I’m able to be in this position. And the energy’s about to shift.”
