Key Takeaways
- Jaylen Brown doesn't subscribe to NBA awards and urged players not to chase outside approval.
- Brown questioned the league's criteria for these accolades but acknowledged recognition can reward hard work and amplify players’ voices.
- Athletes risk disappointment when they tie their identities to others’ opinions, Brown warned.
NBA awards are not all that important, at least if you ask Jaylen Brown. On Thursday (Oct. 29), the Philadelphia 76ers star, who took home Finals MVP honors just a couple of years ago, appeared on Tommy Alter’s “The Young Man and The Three,” where he argued that players shouldn’t be chasing validation from the league's “fake committee.”
Roughly 40 minutes into the podcast, Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe asked Brown how he deals with outside voices, especially knowing that NBA players are expected to speak at postgame press conferences and so on. “By not giving a f**k,” the 30-year-old answered. He went on to explain that, in sports specifically, many people are “chasing a bar that doesn’t exist,” whether that’s who the best player in the world is or who deserves the coveted MVP title in any given year.
“All the awards that people chase, all the outside validation, it doesn't even matter. It's made up. You know, somebody made up an award and made up a fake committee to give people these awards based upon what criteria?” Brown claimed. “Nobody actually really knows.”
He continued, “It feels great to be validated because it gives you a platform and an opportunity to have a bigger voice or to be rewarded for your hard work over the course of however many years or whatever the case may be. I understand that. I know people want that.” See below.
Jaylen Brown says chasing outside validation will “never” make NBA players happy
According to Brown, players who “wrap [their] identity” around awards or what other people think of them are setting themselves up for disappointment. For that very reason, he refuses to let either dictate how he lives his life. “I won’t let anybody or anything control my happiness or my peace,” he told Radcliffe and Alter. “You just got to not give a f**k.”
There’s perhaps no better basketball star to speak on the topic than Brown, who’s faced his fair share of praise and criticism over the years. Just recently, he made headlines for pushing back against Brian Scalabrine’s “false allegations” that he presented the Boston Celtics with a list of ultimatums or demanded a trade during the offseason. What do you think about his stance on awards?