Boston Celtics fans obviously want their players to win awards whenever possible. But if Jaylen Brown's 50-point masterpiece against the Clippers on Saturday is what happens whenever he's snubbed for an award — even one as small as Eastern Conference Player of the Month — then maybe Brown coming in second place every once in a while isn't so bad.
According to Brian Windhorst of The Hoop Collective podcast, "His motivation for all of that was that he didn't win Eastern Conference Player of the Month," talking about Brown's scoring outburst and his simultaneous high-level defense on Kawhi Leonard.
Sometimes a chip on your shoulder is more of a crumb, and that was the case here. I didn't know players cared about awards like Conference Player of the Month! Do they? Or was Brown looking for literally anything to hype himself up?
Whatever the case, C's fans won't complain. Celtics fans don't care how this team motivates itself, even if it's Brown not winning an award that everyone forgets about two weeks after it's given out.
Brown's 50-piece was hard to ignore, and while that was certainly his best game of the season, he's been dominating in similar fashion pretty much all year.
Jaylen Brown is forcing his way into MVP talks
Something strange is developing in discourse about the Celtics. They were expected to be awful this season after losing Jayson Tatum to injury and multiple trades. But they're not awful — they're very good! Right now, they're No. 2 in the Eastern Conference.
But instead of receiving credit for leading the Celtics to heights they were not expected to reach, Brown has mostly been written off as just doing what he's supposed to do with Tatum sidelined.
Strange! Nonetheless, the Celtics just keep on winning, and Jaylen Brown keeps on dominating. He's a couple of big games away from joining Luka Doncic as the only players in the NBA averaging 30-5-5, and he's having his most efficient shooting season in years, too.
What else can Jaylen Brown get mad at? The second round of All-Star voting just came out and he's currently No. 6 in the Eastern Conference. That's pretty high, unfortunately, so I don't think that's enough to light another fire under him. Everyone stop voting for Jaylen Brown for All-Star to make him mad so he can score 50 points again.
Wait, that seems backwards now that I say it out loud. We'll figure something out.