Jaylen Brown

Jaylen Marselles Brown (born October 24, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one year of college basketball for the California Golden Bears, being named first-team all-conference and Freshman of the Year in the Pac-12 Conference. Declaring for the 2016 NBA draft after his freshman season, Brown was selected by the Celtics with the third overall pick. As a professional, he has split his time between shooting guard and small forward. Brown is a two-time NBA All-Star, and he helped the Celtics reach the 2022 NBA Finals. Brown is primarily a vegetarian and has diverse interests including learning Spanish, studying history, meditation, and philosophy. He is also a big soccer fan as well as a big fan of anime. Many have described him as an unusual athlete, with many ambitions beyond basketball. Brown, who is African-American, assembled a primarily African-American advisory team prior to the NBA draft, but did not hire an agent. He was criticized by some as "too smart" to play in the NBA, with some scouts worrying he would grow tired of playing basketball and instead opt to pursue other career paths. This criticism was taken by some as racial bias against African-Americans. When he was 22 years old, Brown became the National Basketball Players Association's youngest elected vice president. In recent years, he has spoken on the importance of education and technology at Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, and MIT. In 2019, Brown was named as a MIT Media Lab fellow and has since collaborated with the university to create the Bridge Program, which mentors Greater Boston youth and high school students of color, who are interested in pursuing careers in STEM programs. Through his work with MIT and his 7uice Foundation, Brown has taken a strong interest in tackling education and income inequality, among other social advocacy initiatives. Brown's father is Marselles Brown, a professional boxer, who is the 2016 WBU World Champion, the 2015 WBU C.A.M. Heavyweight Champion, and a member of the Hawaii State Boxing Commission Board. Brown has a YouTube channel, where he has posted several documentary-style video series depicting his life during the season and off-season workouts. The first episode, FCHWPO: Pawn to E4, was posted on January 31, 2017. The video title refers to Brown's love of chess. FCHWPO, which is also Brown's Twitter and Instagram handle, stands for Faith, Consistency, Hard Work Pays Off. Brown is the cousin of professional football cornerback A. J. Bouye.