Jaylen Comments on the Trade

joe dokes

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
30,236
Yep, that actually proves my point.
Michael Jordan, on the other hand, just wasn't scared of that big stage. Served him well.
Of course, Nate Britt wasn't scared of that big stage either and, in retrospect, I sort of wish he had been.
If your point is that you can just make shit up to prove some fanciful notion that you have about players' motivations and "courage," then yes, consider it proved.

It appears you think of these guys solely in terms of basketball. They are not humans otherwise. They can ONLY make decisions that are basketball related.

Michael Jordan came from a city of 100,000 people. French Lick had maybe 1500. It wasn't the "big stage." It was the "giant college." Dont know the numbers in the 70s, but we can assume the difference hasn't changed much. IU has 48000 students, about 4 times as many as ISU. Maybe you have kids in college, maybe you don't. Such things often matter.

Some guys are blinded by Roy Williams's plaid coats and public streams of aw-shucksing. Other guys aren't.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 26, 2005
30,484
I'm pro-Jaylen in this debate but the year I moved from NC a few years ago they were the #3 state in the country for tech job growth and do sport the 260-company megapark in Research Triangle Park a few miles down from Chapel Hill. It has been a booming tech area for years.

I saw a quote from Jaylen prior to the draft citing "weather, academics, and location" as his reasons for Cal.......one day I want to hear a player say, "weather, academics, location, and a big ole brown paper bag stuffed with greenbacks" just to fvck around and drive the NCAA nuts.
They have said this - at least on tape - but only now it results in Federal Felonies being charged . . . .
 
Last edited:

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,838
Cross-posting from JB thread - maybe people should read the entire interview? https://www.complex.com/sports/2017/10/jaylen-bronw-meeting-heroes.
JB comes off as thoughtful and relatively honest, which are probably two traits that a professional athlete doesn't need but it's refreshing anyways.



JB explained why he chose Cal in the interview:

What Steph Curry and Andre Iguodala are doing in the tech world, is that something you want to follow?

Absolutely. It kind of helped influence my decision to go to Cal. A lot of people didn’t know why I went to Cal. The Bay Area, Silicon Valley, I wanted to put myself in that position where I’m not only successful on the court but off the court. Why not, right? Not a dis to Kentucky, Kansas, or North Carolina, but they don’t offer that.
I'm pro-JB, but how does spending one year at Cal really do anything here?
 
Aug 24, 2017
397
It means nothing; I made a hilarious post (as is my rep) that meant nothing in a thread about comments that mean nothing.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 26, 2005
30,484
I'm pro-JB, but how does spending one year at Cal really do anything here?
It's in the interview. He got to intern at a VC company. I assume it specializes in tech investments. I also assume he got his name out to tech companies in a way that he couldn't do if he didn't play at Berkeley. He also said in the interview that he got invited to something called the "Player's Technology Summit" - he was the youngest invitee - and intimated that the invitation was in part because he went to Cal.

The entire interview is worth reading. JB comes off great, even considering the comments about the trade.
 

reggiecleveland

sublime
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Mar 5, 2004
27,957
Saskatoon Canada
This is one of the more pronounced mountain out of molehill Sosh threads ever. Guys bought into a program, played "Celtic Basketball" now they are gone and have establish a new style.
 

MainerInExile

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Nov 21, 2003
4,825
Bay Area
I'm pro-Jaylen in this debate but the year I moved from NC a few years ago they were the #3 state in the country for tech job growth and do sport the 260-company megapark in Research Triangle Park a few miles down from Chapel Hill. It has been a booming tech area for years.
The Research Triangle has a small tech scene, that's true. But the Bay Area has a tech scene that is about the size of the rest of the country combined. Cal is closer to NC in terms of basketball than NC is to Cal in tech.
 

snowmanny

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 8, 2005
15,667
Drocca also used to rant about how Jaylen must be soft to turn down a chance to play at UNC. Or something. Really odd.

ED:Hmmmmm
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,668
Drocca also used to rant about how Jaylen must be soft to turn down a chance to play at UNC. Or something. Really odd.

ED:Hmmmmm
Thought the same thing lol. Drocca's thing was that if you didn't play in the ACC, your college play didn't matter.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,838
Yeah, if only one could google zoolight space and check out the facebook page...
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 24, 2002
48,204
Yeah, if only one could google zoolight space and check out the facebook page...
Spoiler that shit, son.

While it wasn't the standard canned response that most seasoned pro or aspiring pro athletes mutter when asked a question, I fail to see what Brown said here that was remotely off base. Furthermore, he is expressing an affinity for some of the only professional mentors he has ever known. He respected these guys and says as much.

Or maybe I don't interpret these quotes as being detrimental because I am out of market and don't hear the Boston sports talk radio guys going into a frenzy over this small scrap of what they deem red meat.
 

Sprowl

mikey lowell of the sandbox
Dope
SoSH Member
Jun 27, 2006
34,437
Haiku
the Boston sports talk radio guys going into a frenzy over this small scrap of what they deem red meat.
And what a tiny scrap it is. They're desperate for something to talk about, and exhibition games apparently don't cut it.

Theis and Nader played very well in the first one, incidentally.
 

Reverend

for king and country
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 20, 2007
64,026
@Artlord9 kicked me this neat piece on Brown, and I really thought it was something—an excerpt:
https://sports.yahoo.com/counting-crows-endorsed-celtics-jaylen-brown-u-s-senate-obviously-182735309.html

“He is an extremely intelligent kid,” an anonymous assistant NBA general manager told The Undefeated before the Boston Celtics took Brown third in the 2016 draft. “He took a graduate school class at Cal in his freshman year. He is a person who is inquisitive about everything. Because he is so smart, it might be intimidating to some teams. He wants to know why you are doing something instead of just doing it. I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s a form of questioning authority. It’s not malicious. He just wants to know what is going on. Old-school coaches don’t want guys that question stuff.”

This stuff really makes me believe even more that Brad and Danny are really trying to build something special and have a real vision for it—that this might rub some in the sports world... but they’re gonna use it, not resist it.

And of course, how can one argue with this?

 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,838
A completely meaningless question--how does a freshman register for a grad level class that likely has a bunch of prereqs?

EDIT: Followed some links:

Last summer, when Brown approached Van Rheenen about enrolling in his course, the director of Cal’s athletic study center was reluctant. Never before had a freshman taken the class, which was part of a master’s degree program on Cultural Studies of Sport in Education.

Brown was persistent. So Van Rheenen told him that, if he received approval from the dean, Brown could take the course.

“I thought he would never do it,” Van Rheenen said. “Then there he was, first day of class. I don’t think he ever missed any classes, and he was a fully engaged member.”
 
Last edited:

Reverend

for king and country
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 20, 2007
64,026
A completely meaningless question--how does a freshman register for a grad level class that likely has a bunch of prereqs?
I can’t tell you what kind of fights I’ve seen with professors who care a put students furious that unprepared students are allowed to register for courses they shouldn’t be allowed to at large universities.

I remember one girl at Rutgers, who turned out years later to be one of our prize students, who because of her passion for justice took one of the most intensive 400 level courses on rights and civil liberties when she didn’t yet know what constitutionalism is.

The bureaucracies don’t always work—parents, don’t helicopter, but advise your kids, eh?
 

Marciano490

Urological Expert
SoSH Member
Nov 4, 2007
62,312
Isn't the more interesting question what he's doing hanging out with the Counting Crows?
 

Reardon's Beard

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 3, 2005
3,795
Kid is a thinker and lives in his head. Wanted to go to a school that recognized that and respected it.

Love that he's on this team.
 

Cesar Crespo

79
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2002
21,588
Kid is a thinker and lives in his head. Wanted to go to a school that recognized that and respected it.

Love that he's on this team.
I think the living in his head part explains some of his FT struggles. He's been better of late though. Hopefully he gets up to the 70-75% range because he's going to be a guy who gets 6+ FT attempts a game in a few years.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 26, 2005
30,484
@Artlord9 kicked me this neat piece on Brown, and I really thought it was something—an excerpt:
https://sports.yahoo.com/counting-crows-endorsed-celtics-jaylen-brown-u-s-senate-obviously-182735309.html

“He is an extremely intelligent kid,” an anonymous assistant NBA general manager told The Undefeated before the Boston Celtics took Brown third in the 2016 draft. “He took a graduate school class at Cal in his freshman year. He is a person who is inquisitive about everything. Because he is so smart, it might be intimidating to some teams. He wants to know why you are doing something instead of just doing it. I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s a form of questioning authority. It’s not malicious. He just wants to know what is going on. Old-school coaches don’t want guys that question stuff.”
Neat piece, thanks for linking. The article linked to a 2016 SF Chron articleabout JB's lofe at Cal that I thought was just as, or even more, interesting. http://www.sfchronicle.com/collegesports/article/Cal-s-Jaylen-Brown-has-scholarly-ambitions-6878413.php. One bit:

For much of the nonconference schedule, he played out of control. Sitting extended stints with foul trouble made it difficult for him to find a groove. Even when he was on the court, his shot was inconsistent.

Martin used phrases like “learning curve” and “growing pains” to explain his prized recruit’s struggles. But Muqtar offered a more detailed theory. The worst stretch of Brown’s season was a four-game block in the first half of December, around finals time at Cal. He shot 13-of-43 from the field (30.2 percent), with 15 fouls and 10 turnovers.

Exams and papers, including that 20-page narrative for Van Rheenen’s class, wore on Brown. Come tipoff, he had difficulty concentrating.

“Berkeley requires a lot from you, so you definitely have to find a balance,” Brown said. “It definitely took me an adjustment phase.”


Added Muqtar: “Once finals were done and he could just focus on basketball, his game slowed down.”
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
SoSH Member
Sep 27, 2016
21,754
Pittsburgh, PA
“He is an extremely intelligent kid,” an anonymous assistant NBA general manager told The Undefeated before the Boston Celtics took Brown third in the 2016 draft. “He took a graduate school class at Cal in his freshman year. He is a person who is inquisitive about everything. Because he is so smart, it might be intimidating to some teams. He wants to know why you are doing something instead of just doing it. I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s a form of questioning authority. It’s not malicious. He just wants to know what is going on. Old-school coaches don’t want guys that question stuff.”
The article followed that paragraph up with this:

That was a ridiculous and racially insensitive take from an NBA executive who probably preferred to remain unnamed for a reason. Leave it to Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz, of all people, to provide a more reasoned scouting report...
I read the paragraph you quoted and thought, as the AGM presumably intended, "oh, ok, yeah that attitude can often go hand-in-hand with the kind of intelligence and free-spiritedness he's discussing - I guess I should be glad my team was one that he fit culturally on, where the high-EQ management isn't threatened by that at all", and so on.

Could anyone explain to me what my instincts are missing that made this take both ridiculous and, in particular, racially insensitive? I'm very much not getting it, but would like to get it.
 

Reverend

for king and country
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 20, 2007
64,026
The article followed that paragraph up with this:



I read the paragraph you quoted and thought, as the AGM presumably intended, "oh, ok, yeah that attitude can often go hand-in-hand with the kind of intelligence and free-spiritedness he's discussing - I guess I should be glad my team was one that he fit culturally on, where the high-EQ management isn't threatened by that at all", and so on.

Could anyone explain to me what my instincts are missing that made this take both ridiculous and, in particular, racially insensitive? I'm very much not getting it, but would like to get it.
I think he’s accusing the guy of “He’s so we’ll spoken!”-ism and, personally, I think it was a stretch.

I felt as you did—and Jen way or another, I like the prospects and potential of it.

Like, maybe they’re building an army of smart grinding ballers who believe, destined to drive the rest of the league batshit insane from having to deal with them.
 

joe dokes

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
30,236
The article followed that paragraph up with this:



I read the paragraph you quoted and thought, as the AGM presumably intended, "oh, ok, yeah that attitude can often go hand-in-hand with the kind of intelligence and free-spiritedness he's discussing - I guess I should be glad my team was one that he fit culturally on, where the high-EQ management isn't threatened by that at all", and so on.

Could anyone explain to me what my instincts are missing that made this take both ridiculous and, in particular, racially insensitive? I'm very much not getting it, but would like to get it.
With the caveat that it didn't strike me this way when I first read it, it's not often suggested of white players that their intelligence might somehow get in the way. That said, its more of an indictment of "old school" coaches who either fear intelligence, or don't expect it from black players. OTTH-There probably aren't too many of those allegedly "old school" coaches around/remaining/succeeding.
 

pappymojo

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 28, 2010
6,667
If anything, it maybe suggests that racism exists in that there are 'old school' coaches who don't want black players to do anything beyond what they are told to do. I'm not sure how that reflects racism on the part of the anonymous assistant GM who made the comment, though.
 

PC Drunken Friar

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 12, 2003
14,540
South Boston
Jaylen post game- his HS friend committed suicide yesterday.

He was close to breaking down. Teary eyed. He transfered HS to play bball and, as an introvert, was sitting by himself at lunch. The guy whose position he came to take over came over to him on the third day of him sitting by himself and told him to sit with the crew and they were like best friends since. Kyrie gave him the game ball and brown said he was thinking about him the entire game.
 
Last edited:

Papelbon's Poutine

Homeland Security
SoSH Member
Dec 4, 2005
19,615
Portsmouth, NH
Jaylen post game- his HS friend committed yesterday.

He was close to breaking down. Teary eyed. He transfered HS to play bball and, as an introvert, was sitting by himself at lunch. The guy whose position he came to take over came over to him on the third day of him sitting by himself and told him to sit with the crew and they were like best friends since. Kyrie gave him the game ball and brown said he was thinking about him the entire game.
I assume you’re missing a word there and he committed suicide?
 

Devizier

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 3, 2000
19,465
Somewhere
I can’t tell you what kind of fights I’ve seen with professors who care a put students furious that unprepared students are allowed to register for courses they shouldn’t be allowed to at large universities.
Graduate level courses often have like 5 people in them. Getting the classes filled might mean that the dean/department chair doesn't make you take on extra teaching requirements.