BOSTON – Jaylen Brown joined an elite Celtics club Sunday night, becoming the 15th player in franchise history to score 10,000 points.
The milestone bucket came on a driving layup less than 30 seconds into the second half of a 124-107 win over the Portland Trail Blazers, and the feat was recognized with a congratulatory message on the Jumbotron at the next timeout break, which was met by a thunderous ovation from the TD Garden crowd.
As one who appreciates life’s milestone moments, Brown took the opportunity to soak it all in and thank the fans who have supported him from his first point to his 10,000th.
“It was great,” Brown said of the response he received. “Especially all the supporters who have been supporting me from day one. Obviously, things have been up and down throughout the early stages of my career and I’ve been able to get different opportunities, been able to improve, and also have been able to gain more responsibility. But for the day ones, the JB fans who’ve stayed in my corner since day one, I feel that love and I like to just show that love right back. There’s a lot of people here in Boston who have supported my career, my journey, and I’m grateful for that. That encouraged me to just keep getting better. That encourages me to keep improving and proving the naysayers wrong and just keep leveling up.”
Head coach Joe Mazzulla soaked in the moment as well, noting how much pride he felt seeing Brown achieve such a significant accomplishment.
“Just because of the type of guy that he is, the hard work he puts in, and really the growth that he’s shown this year working to become a complete player on both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla explained. “So I know he’s happy about that, but even when he achieves those things, he’s never satisfied. But it’s cool to be able to coach guys who get those types of milestones and to be a part of that. He deserves [praise] because of the hard work he puts in.”
Brown reflected on that hard work in his postgame press conference, going all the way back to the beginning of his journey.
“Just coming from my background,” he said, “single-parent household, just my family, being able to have an opportunity to just change things. When you look back on everything, all I can say is I'm incredibly grateful to be in this position. It’s been a lot of hard work and effort, but I'm extremely blessed at the same time. So I don’t take that for granted and I'm looking forward to just continuing to grow, continuing to improve, and maximizing my potential.
“It's been a great journey, and even though the journey is still going, just take the moments to appreciate all the work, the hard work, the effort that has gone into even getting to this point. It's been ups, it’s been downs, things haven't gone my way, things have, and you know, here we are. So I'm incredibly grateful and I'm looking forward to the future.”