Jaylen Brown: Number 7 is 'divine number I've always liked'

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2016/08/boston_celtics_rookie_jaylen_b_2.html



Boston Celtics rookie Jaylen Brown: Number 7 is 'divine number I've always liked'



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Boston Celtics rookie Jaylen Brown played at the Utah Summer League. (AP Photo / Kim Raff)
Tom Westerholm | twesterh@masslive.com
Tom Westerholm | twesterh@masslive.com By

Tom Westerholm | twesterh@masslive.com


on August 14, 2016 at 2:59 PM






There aren't a whole lot of cool numbers available to Boston Celtics rookies as they join the team — numbers between 0 and 20 are usually preferable, and 11 of the pre-20 numbers are retired. Meanwhile Isaiah Thomas occupies the No. 4, Avery Bradley has dibs on 0, and nobody has worn 20 since Ray Allen vacated it.

Rookie Jaylen Brown looked like he might lay claim to Rajon Rondo's old No. 9 after Brown donned it in Summer League, but when Jared Sullinger signed with the Toronto Raptors, Brown's real target opened up.

From a recent Gary Washburn interview with Brown in the Boston Globe:

"I had limited options to start with because a lot of [the Celtics'] numbers are retired," Brown said. "No. 7 has always been my favorite number. It's a spiritual number. It's a divine number I've always liked. So when it became available to me, it was the number I wanted to wear."

Wanting to wear "a divine number" is a much deeper reason for using a number than mine for grabbing the No. 8 in men's leagues (like Antoine Walker, who also wore No. 8, I like to fire up deep 3-pointers).

Brown added that he remembered seeing fellow No. 7-wearing Celtic Dee Brown's dunk from 1991 draft and enjoyed the tribute he was able to pay at the rookie photoshoot.

The number nine is a good one, but it still carries implications for Celtics fans who enjoyed the Rajon Rondo era. It's nice timing that Brown, who the organization undoubtedly hopes will be a fixture with the team for quite some time, was able to grab a number that he prefers.

Brown also told Washburn about his interactions thus far with Marcus Smart. Here's Brown:

"He showed me some things that I need to know and now I'm a little bit ahead. He was a great mentor to me while I was out there. He's spent two years in the league. He told me the real and we practiced and trained at the pace of an NBA practice and it was good. I benefited from it."

The NBA is a completely different game, and for that reason, preparation is completely different as well. Few people are more qualified to speak about that difference than Smart, who experienced the gap just two years ago. If Brown is picking a mentor on the current roster, the hyper-competitive and hard-working Smart could be one of the best possible choices.



bob


.

And, even if Marcus Smart never gets to become a 40% three point shooter or a guy who gets 12 assists per game, stuff like this is just another reason to keep him on our roster.

There are more things than just stats that make any certain player very important to a team.