Even though Jaylen Brown has flourished in his role with the Boston Celtics, he still receives criticism from Green Team fans who want to see the team win its first championship since 2008.
Asked by Sopan Deb of the New York Times if he has ever witnessed the racist behavior of Boston fans toward Black athletes, Jaylen Brown said that he has not. A remark from him:
I indeed have, but I tend to ignore it. Not all Celtic fans are bad, but a problematic subset exists within the Celtic nation. They attribute your flaws in character to the fact that you had a poor performance on the field.
“I believe a sizeable portion of the Celtic nation is poisonous and does not want athletes to use their platform or that you would rather just play basketball, entertain, and go home. And that bothers me a lot.
In an interview with ESPN’s Tim Bontemps from May of 2021, Jaylen Brown talked about his encounters with racism in Boston and the larger system of racism in the United States.
“I don’t believe that every Celtics fan, and I can say with absolute certainty that not every fan in our arena is racist. Celtics fans come from all walks of life, ethnicities, and skin colors. For this reason, I don’t think it’s fair to label every Celtics fan as a racist. But there’s no denying that we have a lot of work to do in Boston. The incarceration rate is absurd, the wealth gap is shameful, and the educational opportunity gap in Boston’s public schools is unacceptable.
There needs to be more materials and prospects in that area. Boston’s tokenism is an issue that must also be resolved. Nonetheless, things could exist in a sporting arena if we talk about it and if that’s what the media brings up. However, in reality, there are vast differences between the two extremes. So, it was important to express my thoughts. This is just my opinion, and others are free to disagree. Boston needs a lot of improvement.
Several prominent athletes from different leagues have publicly complained about their time in Boston
Warriors veteran Draymond Green recently recalled hearing racial slurs aimed at him and fellow All-Star Stephen Curry from Boston fans during the 2022 NBA Finals, a series the Celtics ultimately lost in six games.
While “situations” may arise in which “people talk crazy,” Green told ESPN’s Kendra Andrews in January that “the entire arena” is unlikely to be among those people. An entire arena may boo you in the future, but it won’t be like what the Boston fans did. This was a completely novel circumstance for me. Because of how unexpected it was, adjusting to it took some time. That came as a big surprise to me.
“Why do you hate Boston?” was posed to Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James during a July appearance on HBO’s The Shop. He responded, “Because they’re racist as f—k.”
In his memoir Second Wind, published in 1979, Celtics legend Bill Russell called Boston “a flea market of racism.” Russell and the team won 11 championships during his time with the team.
“It had all varieties, old and new, and in their most virulent form,” he wrote, as reported by the Boston Globe. “There were fake radical-chic racists in the college towns, corrupt city hall crony racists who wanted to send people back to Africa, and brick-throwing racists all over the city. Besides that, I found the city to be quite enjoyable.
Numerous ex-Celtics have spoken out about the racism they encountered while playing in Boston, including Hall of Famer K.C. Jones
Framingham was where my family and I called home during my playing days. The house I eventually settled on was only about five blocks away. According to the Washington Post, Jones told Boston Magazine that his neighbors had said they didn’t want any Black people to move into the house.
Jaylen Brown has been one of Boston’s most reliable players for the season, averaging 26.8 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists on 49.0 percent shooting from the floor and 33.8 percent from deep in 58 games.
But the 26-year-old has faced the same unjustified criticism as previous Celtics and has been unable to escape it.
For the past few years, the team’s expectations have been rising, and after making it to the NBA Finals last season, those expectations skyrocketed. With the latest NBA Updates, fans are eagerly anticipating the upcoming season to see if the team can meet or even exceed those lofty expectations.
The C’s were Eastern Conference leaders for most of the 2022-23 season, but after going 5-5 over their last ten games, they now find themselves two games behind the Milwaukee Bucks.
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