WASHINGTON — Jaylen Brown said he doesn’t quite remember why he felt compelled to post on social media that he wanted to meet Bill Nye the Science Guy. But that’s what he did back on Nov. 2, hoping to meet a childhood TV star.
And as it turns out, Brown got to do just that after the Celtics beat the Wizards on Friday. By chance, Nye was in the stands at Capital One Arena for the game, sitting baseline near the C’s bench. So postgame, Brown got to meet Nye.
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“I was just up thinking about just the educational experience,” Brown said. “And it just crossed my mind like, ‘Man, I gotta meet this guy.’ His contributions to STEM and STEAM have been amazing. He made learning fun growing up. I used to be excited when the teacher said we would be watching Bill Nye today. So looking back on it, to be able to shake his hand for helping me and my educational journey, it was pretty cool tonight.”
Nye got perhaps the loudest ovation of the night Friday when he was introduced to the crowd. Just like it often is at Capital One Arena, there was a heavy presence of Celtics fans as there was green all over the stands. But both Wizards and Celtics fans got together to cheer on Nye, who’s a fan favorite spanning years of students.
Nye also posted about the Brown interaction on Instagram, saying he was “honored” to meet the Celtics star. But it sounds like it was just a couple guys who were excited to get to know each other. So Brown will take that experience as he was able to make some lifelong memories in one trip, between meeting Nye and visiting the White House.
“It was just kind of a combination of both,” Brown said. “I think we were trying to see what was going to work. Maybe we were going to do something in LA or not. But I think he just happened to be here, so it kind of fell in place. But what an honor. What an honor. Definitely was excited to meet him. It was pretty cool to just shake his hand.”
