Ever since he stepped foot in the NBA, Jaylen Brown has been going against the grain. Once his initial deal with Adidas ended in 2021, he remained unsigned. When he inked the largest contract in NBA history, he was taking a robotics class. Just this year, he started Boston XChange, which is projected to generate $5 billion in generational wealth for communities of color in the city. Nothing about Brown is conventional. He’s unique in the best possible way.
Yet somehow, the Boston Celtics star has been portrayed as an outcast at times. It’s almost as if the media doesn’t know how to cover him. Just last year, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith called him unmarketable, to which Brown responded by wearing a “State Your Source” shirt during the Celtics’ NBA Championship parade.
Well, it seems as though Smith couldn’t have been more wrong.
Jaylen Brown's marketability isn't the same as most NBA stars
On Thursday, Brown made an appearance on First We Feast’s Hot Ones. He spoke about the upcoming season with the Celtics, as well as a bunch of his personal endeavors.
Brown even spoke about his parade shirt, noting that he and Smith may end up sitting down for a chat at some point in the future.
“I don’t really do too many podcasts, too much talking, interviews. I rarely do them. So, some of the narratives kind of float, and I allow them to float,” Brown said. “But going forward, I look forward to clearing up some misconceptions and addressing some things in the past. So, maybe me and Stephen A. will have a sit-down at some point and hash things out.”
It didn’t seem as though Brown was too upset with the narratives that have been going around. Moreso, he seemed ready to put some of them to bed. And his offseason certainly proved plenty of them wrong.
In addition to his appearance on Hot Ones, Brown also recently graced the cover of TIME magazine and started his own performance/sneaker company, 741.
So, perhaps Smith was correct. Brown isn’t marketable. At least not in the sense of a traditional athlete. But in the grand scheme of things, he couldn’t be more wrong.
Brown is marketable in his own way. As a human, not just a basketball player.
Of all the questions Sean Evans asked Brown on the show, many weren’t even about basketball. They spoke about philosophers, chess, and so much more.
The Celtics star has worked tirelessly to parlay his efforts on the court into making an impact away from it, and that’s why he’s as marketable as he is. It may not be traditional, but that’s never been Brown’s lane, anyway.
