by With Jayson Tatum likely to miss at least the majority of the 2025-26 season due to his Achilles tear, Jaylen Brown is set to take on a heavier burden. He seems ready for the challenge.
During
an appearance on Kyrie Irving’s 24-hour live stream on Twitch over the weekend
, Brown’s conversation with his former teammate turned to his basketball ability and what he thinks he’s capable of as his rating in NBA 2K was brought up.
“People haven’t seen me at my best because we have a loaded roster, so sometimes you need to do what needs to be done as a team,” Brown told Irving.
However, Brown believed that his 92 overall rating in the game was “valid.” Irving disagreed, saying he should be a 94 or 95.
“Explain to the people at home, because I was there in the [2024 NBA] Finals,” Irving said, trying to get Brown to speak highly of himself. “You were the No. 1 offensive rated team of all time. … You saying you were sacrificing for the team, I still saw you get 30 [points]. … You gave us problems. You gave us fits.
“So, I saw it from a side of, ‘OK, this is the role he’s in.’ That’s why I said [you should be] a 94 or a 95.”
Brown said that he “respected” Irving’s opinion, but said he wouldn’t “complain about” his 92 overall rating.
“When you’re on a team, you’ve got to make sacrifices,” Brown said. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being a part of a team.”
Brown has been widely viewed as one of the league’s top wing players over the last several seasons, being named an All-Star four times, and has averaged at least 20 points per game in each of the last six years. Still, s
ome have wondered what Brown could do as a lead option
, as he’s largely played second fiddle to Tatum offensively in his career.
Brown arguably has outshone Tatum at times. While the stats might not suggest it, Brown played some of the best basketball of his career in the 2024 NBA Finals. His defense on Luka Doncic in that series was key to slowing down the Mavericks’ offense, while his near 30-point triple-double in Game 3 helped give the Celtics a 3-0 series lead. Brown wound up winning Finals MVP.
As Brown prepares to be the Celtics’ top scoring option in 2025-26, president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said earlier in July that he thinks Brown is “ready” for that challenge.
“There’s no question that Jaylen will draw the most attention and that Jaylen will, I think, thrive in that,” Stevens told reporters. “I think you saw him several times — certainly the few games in the playoffs where we had to play without JT, and I thought he did a good job, especially those two home games.”
But, Brown is also rehabbing from an injury himself. He underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to repair his partially torn meniscus.
Brown is expected to be ready when training camp opens, but he wasn’t shy to admit that undergoing surgery has made him feel vulnerable.
“I’m a very confident person, but surgery is like the one thing that can make you question yourself more than normal,” Brown told Irving, who is rehabbing from an ACL tear. “Just the journey of the recovery, those questions, those doubts, the rise — all of those different things. You’ve got a navigate it.
“I had a minor [surgery], I had a scope. But it’s still like — having to be on crutches for an amount of time. That has an effect on your mental health, does it not?”
The recent surgery wasn’t the first time Brown’s gone under the knife during his NBA career. He underwent wrist surgery late in the 2020-21 season, which ended his year early and sidelined him for three months. But Brown admitted that he had to learn to be OK with having people help him in his rehab from surgery this time around.
“For me, it’s hard to allow people to see me in that space,” Brown said. “As I’ve navigated through this journey, that’s something I’m going to get better at that.”
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