With the Boston Celtics still fresh off their gut-wrenching playoff elimination, Jaylen Brown is left with a lot to think about throughout the offseason.
After Brown earned All-NBA honors, the 26-year-old became eligible for a supermax contract extension exclusively from the Celtics, worth just under $300 million, which would make him the highest-paid player on the team. Yet, after a year that began with Brown's name being at the forefront of trade rumors and ended in atrocious fashion, it's unknown what path the All-Star will follow.
With that in place, NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas, who's a noted mentor of Brown's, added his two cents amid the contract controversy that's followed Boston's disappointing finish to a failed season.
"Take the money," Thomas told Heavy Sports.
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Brown, a known advocate for social change, has opened up about the negatives that have spawned from his Boston experience, which began when the Celtics drafted him in 2016. That opened the door of speculations as to whether or not he'll explore the freedom and flexibility of free agency and perhaps take a pay cut to perform in a more comfortable setting.
But Thomas is all for keeping Brown in Boston.
"When I got to know Jaylen Brown and how he played, I said to him -- and this is before the draft process started -- I said to him, 'You're a Celtic,'" Thomas revealed. "He fits the Celtic culture that I played against, that I competed against. That I know."
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