I try not to think about the things I can't control.
— Jaylen Brown
I'm just trying to be the best basketball player, the best student, the best son, friend, etcetera. I'm just trying to get better in every facet.
People will come at me telling me to wear this or wear that. If I don't like it, I don't like it. They couldn't pay me to wear it. If it's something I can rock with, I'll rock it. I'm more interested in being completely authentic to me. In my opinion, being myself is making a statement.
Often, everybody is comfortable with their role in life, and they forget about the people who are uncomfortable.
I'm just going to keep working to show people what I can do.
If I want any shot at getting on the floor, I gotta know what I'm doing defensively.
Some people think racism has dissipated or no longer exists. But it's hidden in more strategic places.
Reading is looked at like it's corny or lame, but you'd be surprised what you can find in a book.
So basketball has always taken me places that I could have never imagined.
I would go to games like I go to dinner. If I come and wear something crazy, I'm just trying to be myself.
I just try to be respectful of everybody.
I had attached my life to basketball so closely that it made me physically ill.
I just think Trump's character and some of his values makes him unfit to lead. For someone like him to be president and in charge of our troops? It's scary, to be honest.
I disagree that an athlete can't be intelligent. Some people think that, in basketball, we have a bunch of masculine adults who don't know how to control themselves. They're feeble-minded and can't engage or articulate ideas. That's a narrative they keep trying to paint.
One of the most subtle but aggressive ways racism exists is through our education system.
At Berkeley, you wore a hoodie and pajamas and Birkenstocks, and that's swag. I was so thrown off. What I thought was cool wasn't cool no more, so I thought about what I actually liked. I started experimenting. I started wearing Birkenstocks. I wanted to dive into the culture.
I really like black. I love wearing black, different aesthetics and shades. I like earth tones. Those are my go-tos.
In life, if you stay quiet, you'll get left behind. So I had to learn to be more vocal and outgoing.
I'm emotionally and physically ready for anything.
There's this idea of America that some people have to win and some have to lose, so certain things are in place to make this happen. Some people have to be the next legislators and political elites, and some have to fill the prisons and work in McDonald's. That's how America works. It's a machine which needs people up top and people down low.
