In a guest appearance on Adrian Wojnarowski’s podcast that aired this past Monday, Jaylen Brown was asked what he feels can “tear a team apart”. Brown’s answer? The media. In his response, Brown expressed some level of regret over one of his comments in the past.
In talking about the dangers of how certain comments can be twisted by the media, Brown gave an example of an incident that took place last season. “About a year or two ago I said that I wanted to win 5 championships by the time I’m 28 and it was more of a goal than it was something that was guaranteed. I think it was perceived that Jaylen said that he’s gonna win 5 championships by the time he’s 28.”
Much was made of Brown’s comments in Boston after the interview with claims that he was arrogant and ignorant to the challenges of the NBA, which led to Celtics GM Danny Ainge speaking with Brown about the issue. “I had to answer Danny. Danny came up to me like ‘Why would say something like that? It’s extremely hard to win one.’ I didn’t mean it the way it was perceived. I wasn’t meaning it in an arrogant term. If I’m setting a goal, why not? I want this, I’m not saying I’m going to do this.”
Brown followed up by saying he regrets that he never corrected people and clarified what he meant after his comments were taken out of context. “I never gave a retractment statement for that and I always wish I had.”
Brown was referring to a Bleacher Report he did with Taylor Rooks in November of 2018. In the interview, Brown was directly asked by Rooks how many championships he thinks he’ll have by the time he’s 28. Contrary to popular belief, this was not something Brown volunteered unprompted. Bleacher Report’s YouTube channel titled the video “Celtics’ Jaylen Brown Predicts He’ll Have 5 Championships by Age 28”.
You can listen to Brown’s full appearance on the Woj Pod here: http://www.espn.com/espnradio/play?id=28521318
Photo: (Michael Dwyer – AP Photo)