Ex-NBA Player Praises Jaylen Brown For Taking ‘Difficult’ Path To Stardom

Jaylen Brown’s development into a bona-fide NBA star is more impressive when one considers other ways his career might have unfolded.

Former NBA player Eddie Johnson hailed Brown’s maturity and steady progression as a player Monday on Sirius XM NBA Radio. Johnson particularly credited Brown for the fact he has improved into an NBA All-Star-caliber player largely in the shadow of teammate Jayson Tatum.

“Brown has taken off,” Johnson said. “You know what? He has done it the difficult way because even through this process he has had to take a back seat. Even before (Jayson) Tatum became ‘Tatum’ (the superstar), and he (Brown) probably had to sit back and be like ‘Hold up now. It should be an equal race here. Why am I taking a back seat?’

“And I’m sure that kind of bothered him (Brown), but he never made it public, he never complained, he has been the ultimate professional. I just applaud him because I know he’s a good player. It’s very difficult to average 27 points (per game). It is not easy. For him to be able to navigate that and understand the science of doing it — at this young of an age — I’m really impressed by that.”

Brown’s 27.3 points-per-game average comfortably is a career high, and his field-goal (.528), 3-point field (.438) goal and free-throw (.769) percentages all are the best of his five-year career.

Much of the NBA community already considers Brown an 2021 NBA All-Star in-waiting, but perhaps that honor will be just the start of his haul for the season.