'Pick your (expletive) head up, like right now'
Jaylen Brown has grown into a much different player than the one he was in his rookie situation.
The freak, raw athleticism was there. But the Boston Celtics wing had to work on his touch, for sure. And in his fifth season in the NBA, his first in which he received NBA All-Star honors, Brown clearly is dialed in.
It appears franchise legend Kevin Garnett could see that potential in Brown early on, and intervened when the then-rookie would get discouraged.
“KG obviously watches a lot of games, he’s still such a student of the game, still watches everything,’ Bryan Doo, longtime strength and conditioning coach of the Celtics said Wednesday, via NBC Sports Boston.
“He texts me and says, ‘yo man what’s up with Jaylen.’ He says all these things that he wants me to tell Jaylen and I said, ‘Kev, I’ve got to be honest man, it would mean a lot more to him if you just leave him a message. He left me a voicemail.'”
Brown is hoping Doo never gets fired from the team.
“I would like to hear it again,” Brown said of the video. “It was so encouraging and inspiring and influential for him to reach out to me and be like, ‘Nah, this is what (being a) Celtic is about. Pick your (expletive) head up, like right now. Ever since then it kind of gave me a barometer about what it is about being a Celtic and the culture, and how deep the blood is here.”
Well, we imagine Garnett would be a pretty good motivator anyways, but it looks like it worked.