Jaylen Brown played with a heavy heart Thursday night as the Boston Celtics overcame a 17-point deficit to defeat the Golden State Warriors 92-88 at TD Garden.
You’d never know it, as the Celtics swingman looked locked in while scoring a team-high 22 points and providing exactly the type of energy that’s helped Boston now win 14 games in a row.
Brown learned just hours before the game that his best friend, Trevin Steede, had died unexpectedly in Atlanta. The 21-year-old initially was unsure whether he’d suit up for the Celtics’ showdown with the defending NBA champions, but Steede’s mother convinced him to play in her son’s memory.
And play, he did.
“It was tough to kind of accept it,” Brown told reporters after the game. “Everybody was kind of in shock. But I knew coming into today that he would have wanted me to play. It was hard getting my thoughts together, but after talking to his mom and his family, they inspired me to come out and play.
“I wasn’t in any shape to come out. I didn’t want to leave my room. But they inspired me to come out and play. And I came out and played in his spirit today. My teammates held me up and we pulled it out.”
Brown met Steede after transferring schools to play basketball at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Ga. The two became close after Steede told Brown, who had been sitting by himself at lunch, to join him at his table, sparking a friendship that would last throughout Brown’s one season at Cal and eventual ascent to the NBA.
Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving, who scored 16 points in Thursday’s victory, gave Brown the game ball and told him it was for his friend. Brown’s teammates couldn’t help but marvel at how poised the 2016 No. 3 overall pick was in the wake of such a tragedy.
“I gave him some great words that was given to me. I’ve lost individuals in my life. It’s never a good thing when someone else is going through it,” Irving told reporters, per ESPN.com. “You do your best to console and to encourage them, but at the end of the day, it’s about the strength within themselves and he showed a lot of that tonight, to be able to go out there and perform the way he did, I knew exactly where the game ball was going to.”
Brown could have sat out Thursday night’s game, and no one would have thought any less of him. The unfortunate situation he’s dealing with goes well beyond the hardwood. Instead, however, Brown channeled his emotion and put forth an incredibly impressive effort.
Hats off to Brown. And our thoughts go out to the Steede family.
