Jaylen Brown

Nineteen-year-old Jaylen Brown—who took a graduate-level class during his freshman year at UC Berkeley—was reportedly labeled “too smart” by one not-too-bright NBA executive earlier this year, and he steers straight into the intellectual label when talking about his transition from playing college basketball to playing professionally for the Boston Celtics: “It’s like going from algebra to calculus.” Brown got his first taste of NBA action during summer exhibition games, and while he came away from that experience asking for patience in his game, he impressed enough onlookers to be named to the All-NBA Summer League second team. It was the latest step in a basketball career that Brown can’t even recall beginning. “I don’t feel like I chose to play basketball, but I feel like basketball kind of chose me,” he says. “I don’t know when I started working early, or when I started waking up in the middle of the night to watch film. It kind of just happened.” The 6-foot-7-inch forward was the Celtics’ highest draft pick in nearly two decades, creating outsized expectations that he could eventually be the superstar playmaker the team has chased since its rebuilding process began in 2013. And the confident Brown isn’t shying away from that label either: “I have to continue to develop, but naturally my playmaking ability is my best attribute.”