The Boston Celtics are two weeks away from the start of their title defense and judging from the team’s preseason trip to Abu Dhabi, the reigning champions are eager to get back to business and chase Banner 19.
Boston took care of the Denver Nuggets with back-to-back wins in the Middle East, first with a competitive 107-103 win and then again with a lopsided 130-104 blowout. Reigning NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, although limited in playing time, was impressive after first scoring eight points in 19 minutes on Friday night and then again through his 21-point performance in 23 minutes on Sunday. But it wasn’t based on anything the box score read that caught the attention of NBA insider Brian Windhorst.
“Jaylen Brown is in, what looks to me on television, like spectacular shape,” Windhorst said on ESPN’s “The Hoops Collective” podcast. “Now, not that I would expect him not to be in shape. Not that he doesn’t have reputation, but we often will see guys coming off a championship, especially if they’ve got a $300 million contract nice and salted away in their pocket — I’m not so sure they always exactly hit the ground with full speed in September. Well, Jaylen Brown is absolutely flying around. He looks terrific. He absolutely bossed Jamal Murray on a drive to the basket on Sunday. No big deal but he looks great.”
Brown’s collected plenty of motivating fuel this past offseason, primarily from USA Basketball. Steve Kerr, Erik Spoelstra, Grant Hill and the rest of Team USA’s coaching staff refused to extend an invitation to Brown to join the Olympic squad, even though Brown had previously expressed interest in partaking in the festivities. Talent didn’t appear to be the measure considering Brown exceeded several members of USA’s roster in that department. Still, without explanation, Brown was denied entry and subjected to watching Celtics teammates Jayson Tatum, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday win a gold medal from afar.
The 27-year-old worked tirelessly throughout the offseason, launching “Boston XChange” and his sneaker brand, “741,” but none of those outside initiatives interfered with Brown’s determination to improve. Brown performed underwater workouts, took trips overseas to get practice reps in and arrived at Auerbach Center early before the official start of training camp to reconvene with teammates.
“For me personally, I worked on everything. I know I say this every year but this is the best that I’ve felt and the hardest that I’ve ever worked,” Brown said on media day.”In the midst of traveling, I’ve been able to balance that with really getting after it. So I’m excited.”