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Jaylen Brown opened up about ‘no left-hand jokes’, and the playoff loss that ‘shifted’ his mentality
"We hadn't won a championship. It killed me bro. I wanted to win more than anything. I wanted to win, period."
Jaylen Brown heard the “no left-hand” jokes NBA fans were making in the aftermath of the 2023 NBA Eastern Conference finals.
In a recent stream on his Twitch channel, Brown revealed that he re-irritated his left wrist during the Celtics’ postseason run that year as his underwhelming performance led to them getting knocked out by the Heat.
“[They say] you ain’t got no left. I don’t, like you got me,” Brown said, laughing. “Most of the time it’s the Celtics fans who are saying that and they know I tore [a wrist ligament]. I missed the whole season, I missed the whole playoffs etc [in 2021].
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“I had surgery and then I re-injured it again in the playoffs. I never said anything publicly. I never will because when I go out there, I give you what I’ve got. I don’t like making excuses, but it’s never going to be the same. Some days it feels great. Some days it feels terrible. Some days I can feel the weather, I can know a storm is coming, based on how my wrist is feeling.”
Tasked with leading the offense after Jayson Tatum went down with an ankle injury in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, Brown committed eight turnovers in the loss to the Heat at TD Garden. That sparked a summer’s worth of jokes from his detractors.
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Brown didn’t duck the criticism after the loss. The Celtics had dug themselves into a 3-0 hole against Miami before Derrick White saved them with a Game 6 tip-in that forced the decisive Game 7 at TD Garden. With Tatum out, Brown had an opportunity to show what he could do as a No. 1 option. It did not go well for him or the team.
“I went to the media and I didn’t make no excuses,” Brown said. “I said it was my fault. I took full accountability. I let the whole city down.” That’s just how I felt, how I looked at things. I come at it and I take my accountability.”
“I’m not one of the people that runs from it, hides from it,” he added. “Y’all had expectations for me to win and do this and we didn’t do it. As a leader, it was my fault. I should have been able to figure something out and I didn’t. It be like that, and it hurt. Bro, that hurt. That killed me, I’m not going to lie.”
Hearing the chatter from fans who wanted the Celtics to trade him stung, Brown said.
“That was tough,” Brown said. “Half the city was like Get this dude the [expletive] out of here. It was a lot, bro, like mentally, and I could understand it. We hadn’t won a championship. It killed me, bro. I wanted to win more than anything. I wanted to win, period.
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“It humbled me, it made me more focused, and my mentality shifted, crazy going into that next year.”
Brown re-tooled his game and led the Celtics to their NBA-record 18th championship the following year, capturing the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP awards along the way.
“It was a great season. It all came together. It doesn’t always have to take a long time. A year later, the worst moment of my career was responded with the best moment of my career in a year’s time.”
“So, I don’t know what y’all are dealing with. I don’t know what adversity y’all got. I just want to tell you it’s never too big to overcome. A lot of things happen and people are like ‘why me?’ It’s not happening to you, it’s happening through you. It’s all about growth.”
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