← Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Jaylen Brown OPEN to LEAVING Boston Celtics? | Hometown Interview RAISES EYEBROWS
00:30:14
Jaylen Brown open to playing in Atlanta? Star Guard's Comments Spark Speculation John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal breaks down Brown's recent remarks about potentially playing for his hometown Atlanta Hawks. The Boston Celtics star's carefully chosen words raise questions about his future intentions and career aspirations. Karalis analyzes the concept of player loyalty in the NBA, exploring how it impacts roster decisions and player movement. The discussion also touches on Charles Bassey's signing with the Hawks and the growing importance of scouting in the league's new "second apron" era. Tune in for an in-depth look at Brown's mindset and what it could mean for the Celtics' long-term plans.
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- [00:02]
John Corrales
It's the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day.
- [00:11]
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- [00:42]
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- [01:12]
John Corrales
Jaylen Brown leaves the door open for him playing somewhere else. We'll talk about it right now on the Locked On Celtics Podcast. Huh?
- [01:23]
Locked On Celtics Hosts (Jeff, D White, Ren, J)
Yup, yup. Be sound. Be ever ready. It's the seeds. Who else could it be? What they going to say now screaming like J.T. corralis recap the madness every game, every practice time. Jeff and D White on the sideline. Ren and J. How we started raising ban is how we finish. Locked on Celtics pod Home of the winners.
- [01:44]
John Corrales
Hey there. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics Podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network where it is your team every day. Your team is the Boston Celtics and I talk about them every Monday through Friday. Back on the daily grind here. Media days opening up soon. Season's back soon, so make sure you're subscribed. Wherever you get your podcasts, watch the show on YouTube. Have some fun in that comment section. Share your thoughts with me. John Corrales I'm a beat writer covering the Celtics for Boston Sports Journal. I've done a version of this job for about 20 years now, and I've written a couple of books about the Boston Celtics. Later on, we're going to get into Charles Bassey, who is not signing with the Boston Celtics despite all of our reactions on after Summer League. But we're going to start with Jalen Brown, who talked about his future in passing, right? It's it's a in passing kind of thing that it's, it raises an eyebrow. But it was there. It was on the, the Big Tigger morning show on V103 in Atlanta. I do not have the rights to play you what he said, but I can read you what he said. I would suggest you go to their YouTube page or their Instagram page where the host, Darian Morgan said, asked, is there any chance we see you in a hometown uniform? And Brown was like, ah, you never know. And Morgan said, would love to see you play for the hometown. And Brown's like, I feel you. I think my grandma would too. They said, has your grandma been talking to you about it? Yeah. Yeah. You never know. We'll see. And so Jalen, I think, does not speak unintentionally. Just like all of us. Maybe we misspeak, maybe we don't, don't say all the things we want to say. And I want to be fair to Jaylen, go, first of all, go to the YouTube page. I will put a link in the show notes for you to go visit the V103 YouTube page. It's at the very end, he was kind of cut off, so he didn't get a chance, I don't think, to add anything. I don't know if he would have added anything either. But just from that exchange, he left it open. He talked about how this was his last year in his 20s, he's turning 29. He, you know, next year when he starts the season, he's going to be 30 years old. So he talked about going out of his 20s in a big way, skydiving, you know, going off script. He, he's, he, he, I think, understands the fleeting nature of, of everything right now. And so he left the door open to the, to the possibility of him playing somewhere else, playing in Atlanta, which is his hometown team. He's from Atlanta, was from Marietta. He, he is a very thoughtful guy. He, like I said, speaks with intention. He does not just say things to say them. Right. He, he says you never know because you, you never know. Right. And I'm not saying that he's going to request the trade specifically to Atlanta, but I'm also going to say that Jalen understands the business. Jalen knows what's going on. He, he also gets that there are going to be options that, you know, at some point in his life, in his career that will be presented to him either by trade or by free agency. Maybe it's, you know, maybe he's in Atlanta next year. Maybe he's in Atlanta for one year at the end of his career. I think with the. You never know. He's just kind of saying, hey, look, it's a weird, it's a weird business. Look, you, you never know with Kristaps Porzingis, who thought he was going to be a member of the Celtics a couple years ago. You never know. Drew Holiday, who knew that was going to happen. You never know. There are things that can happen that are beyond your control, that it's, in a lot of ways, dumb luck. Another team makes a decision that you didn't see coming. You know, maybe Milwaukee wants to move Giannis and Atlanta wants to move Trae Young and Jalen Brown gets caught up in that thing. And we didn't, you know, we kind of start to see some of the discussion of Giannis this, this summer. He's obviously staying in Milwaukee, but who knows how long that happens. You don't know. Especially in today's salary cap era, the, the second apron era, you have no idea how teams are going to change their, their direction. You know, the, the second apron comes along. Okc in a few years, two, two, three years, they might have, you know, big salaries to move. You don't know what team's going to get involved next year, year after year after. So let's just start right out by saying that Jalen is being accurate and saying, you never know. You never know. But he didn't shut it down. And again, to be fair, I, I don't know if he would have, if he got the extra 30 seconds, but the show kind of, his segment kind of ended at that point. He didn't get the opportunity. And I don't know if he would have said, but I'm in Boston. You know, I love Boston. You know, whatever. All of the cliche things that you might want to hear from a guy who was just asked, would you play for another team? So it's tough. And I know the, the, this interview was from a little while ago. The YouTube video, I think was out like a few days ago, and the Instagram video came out on Tuesday. And so it's just starting to trickle out. You know, that he was on the radio show and then he said whatever. He, you know, this about his, his future. So I, I just, it makes sense for, for Jalen to say, hey, look, you never know. I also think it makes sense for Jalen to be looking at, no pun intended, greener pastures. Let's take a break here. Let me come back, we'll talk about Jalen's mindset and and why. Why all of this just makes perfect sense. Today's show is brought to you by five Hour Energy. It's time to fuel up and turn it up with 5 hour energy transfusion. This grape, ginger and lime flavored shot brings the iconic taste of a golf course favorite to a non alcoholic boost perfect for sinking birdies, making some great memories with friends on the course. 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- [10:14]
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- [10:54]
John Corrales
Thank you for making a Locked on Celtics your first listen. Every day. Go check out Locked on NBA Locked on NBA Game Night. Two podcasts on the same feed. Make sure you're subscribed to the one feed. You get both me on Fridays With Jake Madison unlocked on NBA game night and all of our rotating hosts unlocked on NBA game night when the season starts, we're covering every game in the association for the next month or so. We're, you know, we've talked about Euro Basket, we've talked about the big stories in, in the NBA, which is what the, the afternoon show does as well. So go check that out wherever you get your podcasts. All right, so I've talked about this before with Jaylen Brown, but if you haven't heard me talk about Jalen, I think this is an important year for him personally. He's. He's finally getting his chance to, to be the number one guy. And I don't think it's lost on anybody that, that his opportunity to prove to a lot of people that he, you know, that they are wrong about him and his, you know, what he's capable of is right now, Jalen has been clear. I think Jalen is very open about, you know, how he feels he is perceived and how. What kind of player he thinks he is. And he has the utmost confidence in that, in his abilities, that he's one of the best players in the league and he is right even with the top 100. We talked about him being ranked 21, and I was like, oh, that's too low. But 21, there's only 30 teams in the league, so, you know, there's. For him to be 21 is still one of the best players in the league, and I do think he should be somewhere higher than that, some 15 to 20, somewhere in that range. Regardless, he's. He's one of the best players in the NBA, no doubt about it. But there's a perception, and I think he's very in tune to that perception. He's talked about, you know, social capital that rich people want to chase more than keeping your money in the bank. He. He's talked about, I think, a lot of these things. That perception means something to Jalen. And if he is able to prove that he's capable of being a number one guy, which I know a lot of people already believe he's capable of being a number one guy. And look, he's. He's been, we can say number one, number two, but he's. He's been a Finals mvp. He's been like, in that championship run, he was. He was as good as Jason Tatum. Even better in some respects in that, especially in those last two series in Indiana and Dallas, he's right there. Right? And so I think he can prove he can rise to that occasion. It's. It's well within his grasp to go out there and. And prove to people that, hey, I am a number one guy. And I don't think that he is bound by loyalty to a professional sports franchise. He loves the city of Boston. I think in that he's been out in Boston, I think the. The communities that he's been to that have shown him the love. I think he. He has love for. For the city, for what he's been given as a member of the Celtics. I think. I think that he has loyalty to the fans, but he knows that a professional sports franchise can turn around and trade him. He's been part of trade rumors for a long time, right? They in and out of trade rumors for a big part of his career. And he knows that if the Celtics turn around at the trade deadline and get an offer for him that is good, let's just say it's just whatever the offer is, whatever you think a good offer is for Jaylen Brown, Celtics get that and say, hey, we've had. We had to do it. They would pull the trigger. That's the business of the league. So there's no reason, and I agree with Jalen on this, there's no reason for a player to be loyal to a team. And I hate to say that because I know a lot of fans listen and say, we want loyalty, and you get it from these guys while they're here. But your front office is going to make the move. So I know when you watch a game and you see the Boston on the chest, that means something to you. Especially, you know, you're from Boston or the Boston area, that means something to you. Because from the. The first day you started watching Celtics basketball until you are gone, you're going to be wearing that green, you're going to have that Boston across your chest, and you are going to be in a rocking chair telling stories, you know, rocking back and forth, telling stories of, you know, whoever, wherever you start, do you start with Havlicek, do you start with Bird, do you start with Pierce? And your journey goes through to Jason and Jalen and to whoever's next. And then when that person retires, whoever's next, you know, by the time you get to 70, 80 years old, you're going through seven generations of Boston Celtics and stars and whoever, who knows how many titles and all that stuff. And that team is with you throughout the whole time. But that's not how it works for players. Players get drafted in a certain place. A player of Jalen's caliber gets drafted in a certain place, and if it works, great, you stay there for a while. If it doesn't work, or at some point a better option comes along, boom, you're gone. And so I, I am 100% with the players on this. This concept of there is no loyalty between player and team, right? There's no loyalty. We saw it with, with Dallas. It was a stupid move, I think, to trade Luka Doncic, but when they made a decision internally, right or wrong, they made the decision. We're moving in a different direction. So, goodbye, off you go. No questions asked, no nothing. And sure, fans revolted, but there's nothing you can do. This is your team now. So if Jalen says, hey, this is my opportunity after this year, I've said this before, after this year, if he finishes the season an all NBA player, and everybody's like, wow, Jaylen Brown, he really did a great job handling the, you know, the reigns for the Celtics. Why, why would it be surprising if he said, hey, time for me to move on, Time for me to explore? Look at who he is as a person. It should be indicative of. He is an explorer. He goes and explores. Not only does he. It's not like he just visits places around the world. He participates in their cultures. He is experiencing life. He's living life to its fullest. And that's exactly what you should be doing as a young man in his 20s who's made, you know, $100 million, $200 million, whatever he's made, he's. He's made a lot of money. So he is an explorer. He is a free thinker. He is a person who his, his loyalties are to himself and those close to him. Right. He has. Has. Beyond that, it's a business arrangement. And I'm sure if for something, for some reason, if Jalen were decided to decide to leave, he probably, probably come back to Boston in the summers. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if he's the type of guy to come back to Boston every summer. No matter where he is, if he goes to Atlanta, goes to somewhere else, I can see him in July in Boston visiting the schools that he used to visit to keep up their relationships with those kids, because he believes in those kids and he wants. He wants to make sure that he leaves the world a better place and gives these kids who don't normally get the same opportunities as a lot of other people. He wants to give them that opportunity and that belief. And so even if he leaves, I can totally See him coming back. He is that kind of person. And to be clear, I would love Jaylen Brown to stay and be a part of the Boston Celtics. Like, none of this is to say I. I want Jaylen Brown to leave, but I can totally understand if he does. This is. This is his life. And frankly, if he wants to explore and spread his wings after this season, if he's proven something and he wants to prove more, so be it. Because like I said, if the Celtics were to get a better opportunity, they would take it. And so if he's. If he sees a better opportunity out there, he should take it. That's what. It's just like any job. It's just like any job, right? Like, you know, this job. This job is a great job for me. If there was a better opportunity out there, then, you know, I would have to explore it and just, like, locked on. If there was a better host out there and they wanted to move on from me, then they are well within their rights to do that, too. That's any job. Any job applies here. So Jalen leaving that door open, not a surprise at all, because that's. That's just who he is. I think he's. He's open to what the world is going to bring him. And it's. It's kind of an envious. I think it's an envious spot for him to be in. Like, I. I appreciate a person that's not bound by social convention. There's a lot of people who think this is how you're supposed to do things, and I don't think Jalen is bound by that. And I. I can appreciate that. You shouldn't be bound by that. You should be bound by the things that make sense for you, because what makes sense for you doesn't make sense for me. And it doesn't make sense for the person sitting next to you or in the car in front of you or living below you or above you or sitting next to you at work. What makes sense for all of these different people is their own thing. They have their own motivations, their own desires, their own whatever. So there is no cookie cutter path for all of us. And Jalen, I think, seems to understand that, and that's where all of this is coming from. So we can hope that he stays. And I think if he stays, I think he's obviously, I think he's going to be a Hall of Famer. I think his number will be retired in Boston, but that doesn't mean he's going to finish his career in Boston. And so that that's where a lot of this came from. One person whose career may never even involve Boston is Charles Bassey, who is, he's the one who's signing with the Atlanta Hawks. We'll talk about that when we come back. When we come back. Hit the button, John.
- [22:10]
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- [22:40]
John Corrales
On Fox One, you can stream your favorite news, sports and entertainment live all in one app. It's raw and unfiltered. This is the best thing ever.
- [22:51]
Locked On Celtics Hosts (Jeff, D White, Ren, J)
Watch breaking news as it breaks.
- [22:54]
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- [22:57]
John Corrales
And catch history in the making. Debates, drama, touchdown. It's all here but baby. Fox one, we live for live streaming now. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. If you've missed it, the NBA top 100 players is here from the Lockdown podcast network. The locked on NBA top 100. My reaction podcast was on Monday, Tuesday. Actually it was the Tuesday podcast. So scroll back in your feeds if you missed that. Jason Tatum was ranked 10th, Jalen Brown was ranked 21st. We had five Celtics in the entire top 100. So go check out that show. Check out Lockdown NBA. You can listen on Lockdown Sports Today on YouTube. So go check that out if you want to see where who was ranked number one, number two, number three, all the way down to 100. So check that out. One little item here. Charles Bassey is signing an Exhibit 10 contract with the Atlanta Hawks. Exhibit 10 contract is a training camp contract. Basically it's, it's a, a contract that will allow the team to cut you, stash you in their G League and then you are, you're still free to sign with anybody. So the Hawks, I assume at this point I just blanketly, blanket assumption is anybody signed to an Exhibit 10 deal now is going to get cut in camp and go into the G League where they will play for that team's G League affiliate and wait for an opportunity to get either called up or another team's going to call them up. It's a way to kind of take control of a player because you'll listen. If you're the Atlanta Hawks, you just traded for Christoph Sporzingis. You want to get somebody who can kind of maybe back him up. Look, and Bassey has had his own injury history, but he is, you know, he, he's. He's somebody that we obviously after summer league were like, hey, get Bassey in here. That just never materialized. The Celtics didn't feel the same way about him. And every, every summer, no matter how many times I say to myself, I'm not going to fall for somebody's performance in summer league, I'm not going to fall for the banana in the tailpipe, somebody comes along and gives you, hey, Charles Basse. All things considered, the Celtics front front court situation was horrible. And bringing Bassey into camp, even on an Exhibit 10 contract, even it was the same contract as what Atlanta signed. I thought, yeah, just come on in. Like, why couldn't they bring him in on this deal? You could be the team that cuts him and stashes him in the G League, and why not see if he can help you out somewhere down the road. Or maybe they didn't want to be helped out, or maybe they just didn't think his future in Boston was going to be anything. So they just never, they just never followed up on anything with Bassey. They. For a second there, I thought he was going to go play overseas. He had a contract to go play, a contract offer to play overseas, and just. He decided he wanted to stay in the United States. We'll see what happens if he gets cut from the Hawks. I mean, he doesn't have to take the G League deal. It just gives them the right to put him on their team. So if there's a Euro league or offer somewhere and he wants to take that and instead of taking the G League assignment, then he, he can do that. There's money to be made in the G League now, at least enough to keep you in, in, you know, on this side of the Atlantic. The I, I have been obviously an advocate of, hey, look, go spend time overseas if you need to make your money over there. It's not millions and millions of dollars, but there's money to be made overseas, too. And as I always say, Barcelona is really nice. And you go and enjoy, you know, enjoy Greece, enjoy Italy, enjoy wherever there are places to play where it's really, really nice and the food is great and the people are great and the money's pretty good, and you're playing basketball, but people want to stay front of. Front of mind, right? And a guy like Bassey, who has played with the spurs and has NBA experience, says, you know, I'm sure I don't want to go overseas because that's where you get forgotten. I. I'm gonna say that I think that's a little bit of an antiquated thought process at this point because of how readily available all of these games can be, all of these GMs. I'll put it this way, with the Second Apron era fully taking hold now, scouting is going to be more important than ever. You have to find these guys. Maybe it's Bassey, maybe it's not, but you have to find these guys who are cheap and can come in and make an impact, even if it's for two, three years. And then you find the next cheap guy. You have to find. Excuse me. You have to find these affordable players to give you some production at a very reasonable price. So scouting, wherever those guys are, whether it's here, whether it's in Sweden, whether it's in, you know, the Congo, Australia, Singapore, wherever, wherever NBA teams need to be aware of every great player that is playing basketball around the world. So this notion that going overseas is, you know, where you go to get forgotten, I don't. I don't know that that applies the same way. I understand you're not in front of the staff, the Celtic staff. Like, if you go to Maine, you are in front of, you know, Phil Pressy and Celtics assistant coaches, Celtics staffers, guys who are going to be around Brad Stevens and Joe Missoula from time to time. Those. Those are going to be eyes that you want watching you in person. You want to be able to see. And like, there is an advantage to. You want to be seen in practice, you want to. You want to have these conversations. You want to be around. So, yes, there is an advantage to staying here, but it's not as much of a disadvantage to go overseas. So. And you have an agent. You have an agent that's going to be working and, and saying, hey, by the way, hey, Brad Stevens. It's. This is Brad's Charles Bassey's agent. He's killing it over in Germany. You know, why don't you take a look? You know, that's what your agent's supposed to do. So it's not like there isn't somebody advocating for you. So. But Bassey's decided to stick around. He's going to play in Atlanta or, or their affiliate. So good luck to him. And just because he's signing this exhibit 10 with the Hawks, if they cut him and stash him in the G League, it doesn't mean that he's out of the, out of Boston's reach or out of other teams reach. It's just that they had like first crack and if he goes there and he's having a great G League year and, I don't know, Namish K to sprains an ankle or Chris Boucher just doesn't work out. If, if Bassey's playing great, you can go inside, you can pluck him from that other team. The Exhibit 10 contract doesn't give a team exclusive rights. It just gives them like first crack to keep them in their system. So anybody still holding out hope for Bassey? It's not completely dead yet, but it's mostly dead. You'll need Miracle Max to sign him. That's the podcast, everybody. That's the Thursday show. Friday show is going to be the flashcard. Friday Tom Westerholm will be back. We'll do our fun little random, you know, kind of freestyle podcast where we don't know the topics ahead of time and we're just going to go off the top of our head. So I think it's a fun little twist on a podcast where you give us the topics and we, you know, it's, it's like an improvising in a sort of way. So that's tomorrow's podcast. So I hope you subscribe and listen. Be coming every day or join me every day Monday through Friday. There are plenty of everydayers who are here joining me every like waking up, putting on the show or whether it's on your way to work, on the way home from work, going to class, whatever it is, walking the dog. I do appreciate you subscribing, listening, watching. The show is on YouTube. You can watch it there and you can share your comments in the comment section. That's what comment sections are for. I'd also love it if you share huh. Whoops, wrong button. Share the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. It's your team every day.
- [33:06]
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- [33:40]
John Corrales
Ew.
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He smelled really familiar, like my dad. After he washed his clothes, he left.
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- [34:03]
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