The Boston Celtics guard questioned the intentions of players wanting to leave the bubble before the league unified in its stance to continue the postseason.
When the season hung in the balance on Wednesday night, Boston Celtics budding star Jaylen Brown pressed the players who wanted to leave the NBA’s Walt Disney World bubble by asking the difficult questions:
"‘OK, if you guys leave here, are you just gonna leave and go chill and hang out with your families and lose that loneliness? Or are you going to be in the trenches? Are you going to be in the streets?’"
After the players openly questioned whether or not the entire bubble experience was in vain because of the continued oppressive and violent behaviors showed by police towards black Americans, the C’s guard flipped the script. Brown challenged the rest of the league on whether or not they were leaving the bubble for the right reasons after already sacrificing so much to make this happen in the first place.
Brown’s actions directly supported the season continuing, but don’t confuse his willingness to play with an aversion to boycotts. It was Brown who was openly supportive of the Milwaukee Bucks–who apparently faced some backlash for not announcing their intentions before sitting out game five of their Eastern Conference quarterfinals matchup against the Orlando Magic:
Sources: As some in tonight's meeting wanted to hear Bucks' explanation for making an abrupt decision independent of rest of teams to boycott game, Boston's Jaylen Brown essentially said that the Bucks didn't need to explain themselves and he fully supported what they did today.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 27, 2020
No matter the direction the NBA was headed, it is clear that Brown was always going to offer a constructive voice. Don’t be surprised if one day he takes over Chris Paul‘s mantle of president of the NBA Player’s Association.