Jaylen Brown wasn’t trying to draw attention to himself when an old tweet resurfaced over the weekend. Nor does he necessarily want to revisit the content of the social media post.
But as Brown looks to inspire others in his position as an NBA player, the Celtics swingman understands the attention his 2014 tweet has garnered since Boston’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Sunday.
First, here’s the tweet, in which Brown — then a high school student in Georgia — pointed out a ridiculous comment made by one his teachers:
My teacher said she will look me up in the Cobb county jail in 5 years .. Wow
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) April 28, 2014
Flash forward five years: Brown, the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, is not behind bars. Instead, the 22-year-old is a key contributor for a Celtics team that’s three wins away from reaching its third straight Eastern Conference finals. Furthermore, Brown back in February was elected vice president of the NBPA’s executive committee.
“When somebody says something like that, you never really forget it. Something like that you hang onto,” Brown explained Monday, per MassLive.com. “I don’t really want to get into what happened, because I’m going to leave it in the past where it belongs, but it’s true.
“In Georgia, our education system isn’t the best so I don’t put too much blame on teachers. It is what it is. But one teacher handling 35 kids in one class it’s tough. There’s a lot of teachers who go through stuff and take a lot of crap all day, so who knows what was going through her mind that day when she said that. But I will let it be in the past. I will use it as motivation.”
It makes sense Brown doesn’t want to spend too much time living in the past. The present is nice and the future is even brighter for the Celtics standout. But Brown is perfectly fine with others looking at the tweet and using it as inspiration, namely against skeptics who try to shoot down their dreams.
“Stuff like that adds fuel to the fire, and then when it resurfaces it adds more fuel to the fire,” Brown said. “But it’s in the past. I don’t even look at it as a negative, you know what I mean? Or looking to give it back to the teacher. I’m just trying to be the best version of myself.”
Brown’s teacher undoubtedly is eating an elephantine plate of crow right now.
