JAYLEN BROWN BELIEVED IN BOSTON AND NOW HEARS THE “MVP! MVP!” CHANTS

His killer shot in Game 1 was followed by 40 points in Game 2, and as fans remain moody about Jayson Tatum, Brown is proving to be the leader of the Celtics as they chase an 18th NBA championship

     It wasn’t the first time he felt crammed into a corner, his feet barely in bounds, a towering obstacle making him grimace. Jaylen Brown felt that way when he looked at New England and wondered if he should re-sign in Boston. From Bill Russell to Jim Rice to numerous Black athletes through time, the scourge of racism always swallowed lives in that region, with even LeBron James saying as a frequent visitor, “Racist as f—.”

     “I definitely think,” said Brown, “that there’s a group or an amount within the Celtic nation that is extremely toxic and does not want to see athletes use their platform, or they just want you to play basketball and entertain and then go home. And that’s a problem to me.”

     Yet he couldn’t turn down a $304 million offer made last year by the Celtics. The magnitude of the amount made us blanch until this week, when Brown stood by the sideline with Pascal Siakam in his face and impeding paths to the far-reaching basket. His only option was a reptilian bastard of a three-pointer with 5.7 seconds remaining. Already, every odds prognostication had Indiana taking Game 1 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals in the TD Garden.

     Until, as Brown nearly collapsed into the laps of human beings behind him, the shot maneuvered past Siakam and fell into the bucket as crazy drainage. The Pacers, in fact, had blown their one chance of stunning the Celtics and reaching the Finals. Some of the same fans who may have been “toxic,” when he made his decision to stay, were shouting at him with more love than they’ve given Jayson Tatum. The moment may be recalled as the killer if an 18th league championship is won. And all along, Brown realized it would happen when the rest of us were preparing for Game 2.

     “I was just talking to myself, if I get this shot, it’s going in,” he said. “I was telling myself the whole time, if you get it, it’s going up and going in. I created some space on the back side and was able to make a big-time play.”

     Space? What, two inches? By the next game, which the Celtics won with ease, Brown was hearing a different chant in the home arena. “MVP! MVP! MVP!” they shouted as he was scoring 40 points, 17 in the second quarter. Only a day earlier, he’d been snubbed in voting for All-NBA teams. Now we’re looking at an early candidate for Finals MVP, in that we’ve placed his team in the final two.

     “He cares about the right stuff, but I think stuff like that motivates him,” coach Joe Mazzulla said.

     Does it? “We’re two games from the Finals,” Brown said, “so honestly, I ain’t got the time to give a f—.”

     While America takes sides in a more dramatic Western Conference final, while asking if Kyrie Irving would need extra security in Boston, the Celtics look primed for the crown that has eluded them. Tatum is viewed as one of the league’s best players but too often has lagged in crunch moments. The fans appreciate Brown as a growler, the way they remember pieces of Kevin Garnett in the last title run. He refuses to lose again. “It’s easy to keep (the success) in perspective when you’ve lost all six times,” Brown said. “Yeah, it’s a blessing, but what keeps it in perspective is that I haven’t gotten over that hump — one time in the Finals. So that keeps everything in perspective right there.”

     Or, he hears the media touting underlings. “I watch guys get praised and anointed I feel like are half as talented as me on either side of the ball,” said Brown, “but at this point in my life, I just embrace it. It comes with being who I am and what I stand for, and I ain't really changing that. And I'm grateful to step out on the floor every night and put my best foot forward. I get better every single year, and whether people appreciate it or not, it is what it is. I just try to come out and add value on both sides of the floor, and I feel like, when it comes to that, there's not a lot of people better in this league.”

     His teammates know. “He has it going. Y'all see what I see,” Jrue Holiday said. “Great player, great leader, but he wants to win and takes things into his own hands. Having a guy like that on my side, I love it. I ride for him. The way JB's been playing, man, is outstanding.”

     “He’s damn near impossible to guard when he’s got it like that,” Derrick White said. “He was unreal. He just continued to make the right read and the right play. He just had poise and patience to get to his spots.”

     Tatum is not Michael Jordan. Brown is not Scottie Pippen. Both are uniquely capable of leading charges, as we’ve watched Tatum do with scoring in Game 1’s overtime. Both responded when necessary, a good sign. “That s— was chaos. That s— was wild, but just stay present, stay in the moment,” Tatum said. “As long as that time is still on the clock and the game is within reach, we feel like we have a chance. This core group has been in so many big-time games, big-time moments. We’ve had a lead and lost it and still won. We’ve been down a lot and figured out a way to win. I’ve had a lot of crazy endings in this building, so we’ve already been there before. And we always believe, in a sense.”

     Remember when Baltimore outfielder Adam Jones heard “N-word” taunts at Fenway Park? Brown was in his second season. He heard the snipes. “There’s definitely been pressure, but you handle it and you take it one step at a time. You don’t give in,” he told the Athletic. “To me, there’s only one direction you can go and that’s growing and getting better. That’s how I kind of look at it. I block out everything at times and just be the best version of yourself. … Personally, the amount of criticism you get, no matter how well you do, it’s always going to be the criticism that comes first. I’ve struggled with that at times, but as I get older in my career, it is what it is. I add to winning. And I make my teammates around me better. I celebrate the city as best as I possibly can. It is what it is, but I’m grateful to be here.”

     He calls himself “a robot,” accepting the annual challenge. Upset about poor defense in a Game 2 loss against Cleveland, he walked around the locker room and demanded more from each player. What has become obvious, this season and beyond, is that Jaylen  Brown is the leader of the Boston Celtics. Next season, he’ll make $52.4 million in a deal that extends five years to $69.1 million. It’s all guaranteed. “Jaylen had a great year, an All-NBA year,” Celtics basketball boss Brad Stevens said.

     And if you don’t believe in him now, well, you must be toxic.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.