Jaylen Brown is the most effective participant on this planet — and the second-best on the Celtics

Welcome to the 2024 SAT examination offered by the School Board! This 12 months, in an try to attraction to as we speak’s youth, the long-essay immediate might seem unusual to some readers. Nonetheless, we consider it is going to assist us extra pretty consider all college students. Thanks, and good luck!

PROMPT: Is Jaylen Brown the most effective participant on this planet and the second-best on his personal group?

Simply kidding, this isn’t the actual SAT neither is it a dream triggered by repressed stress from years in the past while you have been making use of to school. However after I turn into president of the world, I’ll make this the lengthy essay query on each standardized check. Your means to reply it represents greater than your IQ or the effectiveness of curriculum; it unpacks your psychological flexibility, your worldview, and your means to assume critically about basketball gamers that don’t make plenty of sense.

However it’s nonetheless a sure or no query, which implies you might presumably reply, “no, he’s not. Why would you even ask that, you moron?” This response would rating poorly on the check and can also be objectively flawed. Brown is unquestionably the most effective participant on this planet, and positively the second-best participant on the Boston Celtics. There will probably be no alternatives to revise your reply.

Within the curiosity of educational honesty, this text will act as a solution key, and hopefully additionally train us why Brown is essentially the most fascinating participant in basketball, and why we might by no means fairly determine him out.

Picture by Kayla Bartkowski/The Boston Globe through Getty Pictures

First issues first, when answering this query, one should add the essential nuance that Brown is barely the most effective participant on this planet to some individuals. This on no account falsifies the reply, as shutting out those that disagree with you is a elementary a part of being alive. Politics, pal teams and nuclear households couldn’t exist with out this idea. However why just some individuals?

Properly, within the suite of choices for figuring out who the most effective participant within the NBA is, three shine by means of the remaining: league MVP, online-popular consensus, and NBA Finals MVP. Which one you subscribe to will rely in your elementary opinion of how essential successful is when answering this query. The league MVP and on-line consensus decide is presently Nikola Jokic, however he misplaced within the second spherical.

Should you’re extra old fashioned or simply refuse any information that isn’t “rings,” maybe NBA Finals MVP can be your decide. This not often matches up with the opposite two classes, however it might occur! In 2019, Kawhi Leonard grabbed the Finals MVP trophy on the Toronto Raptors and located the “finest participant on this planet” award hidden inside it like a kind of Russian nesting dolls. After that run, it was simply simple. Saying the Finals MVP merely equals “finest participant on this planet” isn’t a very subtle argument, however it kinda sorta virtually completely at all times works.

Picture by Adam Glanzman/Getty Pictures

It’s a extremely efficient argument to make, nonetheless annoying. Saying “an important participant on the group that gained the Finals” is a extremely onerous argument to beat, as anybody within the group chat who says there’s something extra essential than successful is straight away clowned as a pretend sports activities fan who ought to return to Loserville.

Arguing for the significance of “successful” in sports activities is advocating for veterans in politics. Mother and apple pie. Sunshine and lollipops. Nobody alive dislikes veterans, and any candidate accused of mistreating them is branded as the largest jerk conceivable. It is likely to be a bit morally simplistic, however it’s positively not flawed, so basing your worldview on “successful” is completely effective for this query.

As long as we’re being sufficiently cussed, Jaylen Brown is the most effective participant on this planet when in comparison with all different NBA gamers. In line with the historical past books, he was an important participant within the 2024 NBA Finals. That’s the latest Finals, so bam-bam, thank-you-ma’am on half one.

Picture by Billie Weiss/Boston Pink Sox/Getty Pictures

As for half two, sure, Brown can also be the second-best participant on the Celtics behind Jayson Tatum. Many, many, many individuals have advised me, wrote me, texted me, commented-at me, known as me or telepathically communicated to me that comparability is the thief of enjoyable and that I ought to simply “take pleasure in each guys” with out worrying about which one is best. And identical to the opposite 400 occasions, I categorically refuse.

That mindset is an outrageously boring approach to have a look at sports activities. Merely residing in denial about the necessity to make comparisons isn’t going to cease others from making them, and NBA historical past has proven {that a} coherent understanding of everybody’s function on a group is crucial to success. Prefer it or not, “finest participant” is a kind of roles.

I don’t want to dwell on why Tatum is best than Brown, since I’ve made the identical argument for six consecutive years and have virtually no real interest in making it once more. Tatum is a extra dynamic participant with fewer limitations, and has confirmed that he may be the centerpiece of an NBA offense in any respect three ranges whereas dominating the ball. Brown has executed plenty of that, however has struggled with consistency, ball safety and playmaking in methods Tatum merely has not.

There are arguments that Brown is best, particularly if you wish to simply throw my Finals MVP logic proper again in my face. However I don’t discover that as fascinating when evaluating two guys on the group that simply gained, and is way simpler to falsify by saying Tatum missed out on the award by one vote. I additionally didn’t use a single statistic to show that nor do I plan to, as I believe a holistic understanding of a gamers’ sport is simpler when making an attempt to ask, merely, “who’s higher?” as a lot of information and numbers make Karl Malone the most effective participant in NBA historical past which, like, will not be true in any respect.

I additionally marvel if Brown really needs to be the most effective participant on this planet or on the Celtics. I can go bananas on a Google Doc making an attempt to persuade you that he’s, however within the immortal phrases of my pal Tom every time we’d be watching a sporting occasion and his group can be on the point of successful: “you gotta need it!”

Being the “finest” is lots like successful an Academy Award. It’s alleged to all goal and analytical, however it’s actually only a political marketing campaign and a reputation contest. Tatum positively needs it, and has made it clear for years he needs to go down as one of many all-time greats and to be the face of the NBA in a post-LeBron James world. He’s in Gatorade and SoFi commercials, already has three signature footwear with Jordan and went on The Tonight Present with Jimmy Fallon to advertise his youngsters’s guide. He’s an unbelievable basketball participant and a public man who needs to be well-known. There’s nothing flawed with that, and it’s made him simpler to see as “the most effective.”

However I at all times really feel like Brown is skeptical of all that. He covers up the logos on his footwear, has his personal customized attire line and spends the summer time touring the world and seeing what the world has to supply. It hasn’t lent itself to the simplistic definitions of “the most effective” like Tatum’s story has, however possibly that’s much more admirable. Brown hasn’t drunk the Kool-Assist of the NBA’s company construction, and refuses to be outlined by the labels of others earlier than him.

That’s why he’s my favourite participant, each within the league and on the Celtics. He’s simply essentially the most fascinating, essentially the most particular person and so in contrast to everybody round him. Brown is the most effective and Tatum is best. However I’ve seen Jayson Tatums earlier than and can see them once more. I doubt I’ll ever see one other Jaylen Brown.