Cal swingman Jaylen Brown’s draft stock is pretty fluid right now. He is expected to be a lottery pick, but it is unclear which pick he will be taken at. CBS Sports ranks him as the fourth-best prospect, NBA Draft Net ranks him sixth and Sports Illustrated ranks him eighth overall. He could land anywhere in the lottery.
While Brown’s draft stock may be in question, one thing that is not is his persona—which is much, much different from those of most basketball players. He took a grad school course as a freshman, rocks Asics, and was once captain of his middle school chess team. Yeah, not your typical NBA lottery pick. So with this being the case, here are 13 Things You Didn’t Know About Jaylen Brown.
1. He's a smart guy.
A lot of future pro athletes don’t take their studies too seriously. Former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones infamously tweeted “We ain’t come here to play school. Classes are pointless.”
Brown, however, is a little bit different. He took a graduate-level course in Cultural Studies of Sport in Education in the fall semester, learned to speak Spanish at a near-fluent level in his year in college, and aims to learn three languages by the age of 25.
2. One assistant GM doesn’t like the fact that he’s intelligent.
3. He’s being mentored by Isiah Thomas and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
Rather than hiring an agent, Thomas opted to rely on a group of mentors, which includes NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas and fellow Cal product and former NBA All-Star Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
Brown can only hope the advice Thomas is giving him is better than the advice he gave James Dolan while he was with the Knicks.
5. He was ranked head of Ben Simmons as a high school prospect.
Brown was ranked behind Ben Simmons in both Rivals and ESPN’s Class of 2015 prospect rankings while Scout had him ahead of Simmons.
6. FC Barcelona is his favorite team.
7. His favorite sneakers are Asics. But they're about to be Adidas.
The majority of sneakerheads are obsessed with the latest releases from brands. Brown opts to go with Asics, or at least he did until he announced that he officially signed with Adidas.
9. He was captain of his middle school chess team.
When you think “Chess team captain,” you probably think of a nerdy-looking guy who couldn’t run one lap around the track without collapsing.
Brown smashed this stereotype when he served as captain of his middle school chess team. He continues to be a chess aficionado as he inches closer to the NBA. He took a class on the game at Berkeley last year.
10. His mom calls him “Old Man.”
The 19-year-old Brown is not like most kids his age. His hobbies include the aforementioned chess and table tennis. When he was given an Xbox as a gift in high school, he gave it away because he doesn’t even play video games. These habits led his mom to nickname him “Old Man,” due to his tendency to act like, well, an old man.
11. He's kinda a vegetarian.
12. He plays the acoustic guitar.
Brown did more than just beast on the court and in the classroom during his season at Cal. He also took up playing the acoustic guitar—although he says he’s no Jimi Hendrix.
“I’m not going to toot my own horn. I’m all right,” Brown said of his guitar-playing skills to The Undefeated.
13. He's interned at a venture capital firm.
14. He's friendly with Bill Walton.
“He is one of the most interesting, thoughtful, conscientious and inspirational people I’ve ever had the chance to work with. And he’s only 19 years old,” Walton told Ibabuzz.com. “His parents did a great job and his choice of coming here to Berkeley, boy, he’s making the most of it. I could not be more proud. I could not be more optimistic about the future of the world.”
High praise coming from the greatest college basketball player in the history of the state of California.
16. He listens to Nickleback.
Accusing someone of listening to Nickleback has become one of the most horrifying accusations you can lobby at someone in 2016. It’s borderline offensive. Jaylen Brown, however, does not find it to be an insult. He had the courage to openly admit he listens to the internet’s least favorite band.
