UPON FURTHER REVIEW, JAYLEN SORE BUT OK
Recovery underway after ghastly tumble
WALTHAM — Beyond having a concussion that will keep him out indefinitely, Jaylen Brown likely doesn’t have to worry about further complications from his perilous fall Thursday night in Minneapolis.
“He went through a series of tests (Friday) that were more detailed even than the ones he went through in Minnesota,” Brad Stevens said after yesterday’s practice. “Everything came back negative so he’s doing better. He’s sore and he has entered the concussion protocol. As far as structurally, neck, back, shoulders, he’s going to be fine. He will be out, obviously, tomorrow. I guess at some point he becomes day-to-day, but I don’t see that happening anytime in the next couple days or week even.”
The most relieving part for all who saw Brown, after his fingers slipped off the rim during a dunk, fall on the back of his head and neck is that the news isn’t worse.
“He was walking on his own, everything seemed to be fine,” said Marcus Smart, who saw Brown on Friday, when the latter was undergoing a battery of tests. “So that was a good sign for us. So I think he’s going to be OK.
“It could have been worse. The fact that he was able to walk off on his own was satisfying to us all,” he said. “And just keep your head up. Everybody’s telling him he’s in our prayers and things like that. He’s keeping a positive attitude, and in a situation like that you have to stay that way. And everybody’s here supporting him.”
Stevens naturally shares that sense of relief.
“I don’t want to minimize that,” the Celtics coach said of Brown’s concussion. “A concussion is something that we have to make sure that he comes back 110 percent and goes through the whole protocol symptom free, all that stuff. It could have been a number of things with that fall, but I think, again, he’s fortunate and we’re fortunate that it’s not. He’ll go through the protocol and we won’t bring him back until it’s right.”
Needed dialogue
With Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan and Cleveland’s Kevin Love sharing their experiences with depression — the latter in a piece for The Players’ Tribune — the importance and treatment of mental health in professional sports has been magnified.
“Especially as men, I think we grow up to feel like we’ve gotta be able to do anything on our own. If you ask for help, it shows a sign of weakness,” Smart said of the old stigma of seeking help. “But unfortunately, it’s not that way. You do need help. You can’t do it on your own. Nobody’s perfect. So especially in this business and this game and this life, it’s a lot of things that go on. There are a lot of components that key into your life and a lot of distractions and things like that. So it can get hectic. And it’s good to see those guys come out and say those things to kind of encourage guys not to be afraid. If you need help, speak out on it.
“You’ve gotta have a good supporting cast around you,” he said. “Some people forget that we do have lives outside of basketball, and just like everybody else we do have hard times and things like that. So you’ve gotta have a great supporting cast of guys around you that are there for you — and are genuinely there for you, and want the best for you.”
Stevens brought in a mental health expert to talk to the team prior to the season. Another sign, according to Smart, of how advanced the Celtics coach is in his thinking.
“It’s huge. And that’s what’s crazy. Brad was preaching about mental health before all this really became public,” said Smart. “And that just shows who Brad really is. He’s thinking about others. And he’s one of those guys who we count on. He’s part of our support system as this team. And for him to be able to do that for us is huge for us.”
Stevens, whose first job out of college was analyzing spreadsheets at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, has long been an advocate for dealing with the mental and physical needs of athletes.
“The two drugs we were most responsible for monitoring the sales of were Prozac, anti-depression, and Zyprexa for bipolar and schizophrenia,” he said. “When you work in the pharmaceutical industry, you realize there’s a lot out of people’s control, and there’s ways people can be helped. We can do something to help show people that it’s not only OK, we encourage it.
“We take care of everybody’s physical needs all over the place. We should be on top of everybody’s mental needs and wellness needs. It’s really important to me, and I’m thrilled that some players have come out and talked about it in the last couple of weeks.”
Realignment
As well as the Celtics bench has played in the seven games since the All-Star break, the rotation will be altered as long as Brown is out.
“Kyrie (Irving), Terry (Rozier), Marcus (Smart) are going to play the minutes they always play, plus obviously those guys will be impacted,” said Stevens. “More opportunity for Semi (Ojeleye), (Abdel) Nader and Shane (Larkin). I think that we’ll go game-to-game and minute-to-minute like we have all year and next man step up.
“It’s a little bit different. We’ll look at Shane, Smart, Terry, Semi, Nader, any of those guys could start,” he said of possible replacements for Brown in the starting lineup. “You’re not only worried about the first five minutes of each half. It’s important, it’s really important, but at the end of the day, we’ll weigh starting Smart or Terry or keeping our bench unit together.”