In May 2021, the Boston Celtics announced that star wing player Jaylen Brown would miss the remainder of the season due to a torn ligament in his left arm. He had had lingering pain in that hand for a few games prior, and it turned out to be a serious issue. That injury would change his game forever.
He was a fairly complete player before that who could go either way on offense. But after the injury, he’s had some infamously weak moments, showing an inability to go left.
Recently, Brown opened up about his struggles with this and how memes about him having no ‘left game’ continue to pain him.
“You don’t have any left (game)! La da da da, I’m like, I know. You got me. I f***ing tore it. Most of the time, it would be Celtics fans saying it, and they know I tore it. I missed the whole season. I missed the whole playoffs.”
“I had the surgery, and then I reinjured it again that year, in that playoff. I never said anything publicly. I never will, because, for instance, when I go out there. I give you what I got. I don’t like making excuses.”
“Worst games of my career, I think I had like eight turnovers. But they were just bad. I look like I couldn’t even dribble. And I really couldn’t. I didn’t make any excuses. I went to the media and said it was my fault. I take full accountability. I let the whole city down.”
Brown, here, refers to the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, where he was criticized by the media for having eight turnovers. But he did not blame his injury or justify the loss in any manner.
However, internally, he knew that his game would never be the same again. And in this vulnerable stream, Brown opened up about this battle.
“It’s never going to be the same. Some days, it feels great. Some days it feels terrible. Some days I can feel the weather. I can know if a storm is coming because of my wrist trembling. So, it is what it is. It doesn’t bother me. I go left more than y’all’s favorite players. I think I’ve dunked on people with my left hand. Some of y’all’s favorite players never use their off-hand.”
His journey in the last several years has been full of ups and downs. But the left-hand issue has been consistent throughout. Even this year, he’s already turned the ball over 40 times while going left or applying his left hand on a play.
Without Jayson Tatum on the court, the Boston Celtics are not being taken seriously by other teams, which is a clear reflection of his ability to lead the team. And if one puts it into context, he won the NBA Finals MVP just a couple of years ago. So the expectations from him are elite.
Three years ago, as well, he stood at a similar impasse. He took the next year to prove to his doubters that he could turn it around.
“That’s just how I look at things. I come at it, and I take accountability. I’m not one of them people who run from it, hide from it. I have expectations of myself. Y’all got expectations from us to do this. We didn’t do it. And as a leader, it was my fault. I should’ve been able to figure something out.”
“And I didn’t. And that hurt, bro, that hurt. That killed me. I’m not gonna lie. That killed me. That was tough. You know, half the city was like, ‘Get this dude the f**k out of here.’ It was a lot, bro. But it was like mentally (draining), and I understand it, we hadn’t won a championship.”
“It killed me, bro. I wanted to win more than anything. I wanted to win. So it humbled me. It made me more focused, and my mentality shifted crazy going into that next year. We ended up winning the championship.”
The mental health struggle that Brown has gone through has been a side of him that he did not show before. Through his stream and having created an audience outside of basketball, he’s able to create a space for himself to express such complex emotions.
Before these revelations, he was looked at as a stoic player who was intellectual about the game. But there’s an emotional aspect to his game as well that is affecting his fortitude as much as his skills and talent.
The Boston Celtics take on the Brooklyn Nets tonight at the TD Garden. Hopefully, he’s able to turn it around yet again and find a way to lead the Celtics, who stand 10th in the Eastern Conference with an 8-7 record, to some semblance of success in Tatum’s absence.
