Donovan glad to inspire Brown
Kemba rests knee vs. Thunder
Jaylen Brown doesn’t need much to drive himself over the next hurdle, or level of improvement. But as the Celtics guard told a group of UMass students during a conference call in May, Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan holds a special place in his memory.
Six years ago, while playing for Donovan on the USA Under-18 team, a miffed Brown, upset over what he considered a disrespectful lack of playing time, asked the then-Florida coach for a reason.
“I said ‘What do you mean, I’ve been cooking everybody’,” recalled Brown. “And he told me ‘You’re only going to be in the league for three years because you don’t play hard.’”
Donovan, asked about Brown’s recollection prior to last night’s scrimmage against the Celtics, remembers Brown’s talent at the age of 17.
“I think that when we first started playing, as tryouts were taking place, he was clearly, if not the best, then certainly top one, two or three most talented guys there,” said Donovan. “When we started getting into some structure and started playing, he was someone in my opinion had unbelievable talent and unbelievable ability, but I was trying to get him to understand just how hard he had to play and compete, because I thought the playing hard and competing would take his game to a different level because of his overall talent.
“Jaylen has obviously done incredibly well. I always really liked him as a person, I thought he was a great guy and enjoyed finding out a little bit more about his family. We recruited him a little, not a lot, but I just felt he had so much upside with his talent — I say this a lot, you don’t want to have talent be necessarily a curse to you. And I think he’s developed into a great worker, from everything you hear. I don’t know what kind of impact I had, but I tried to be as honest as I could to help all of them.”
In this instance honesty was clearly a virtue.
“What he meant by that, I realized as I got older, was that I wasn’t playing to my potential,” he said. “I was probably the best player there, but I wasn’t applying myself as best as I could. I was using my talent to beat people, and I could have been outworking them as well. I kind of realized that when I got older, and I realized what that really meant, in terms of who I am and what life is about. Everybody has talent, but talent will only get you so far.
“That was his way, and I really didn’t appreciate that at all. It upset me. I’m not cool with him to this day. For someone to say that was a lot for a 17-yearold. I appreciate the message he delivered, and to this day I kind of think about it, because that message was added to my work ethic.”
Kemba progressing
Kemba Walker, who didn’t play Friday as part of a knee-strengthening plan, recovered well from Thursday’s run with the team, according to Brad Stevens.
“He recovered great from going live. The way these days are scheduled, we have gym times for our games or practices, and then we have some open shooting times at night,” said the Celtics coach. “So if he doesn’t go while we’re here in a practice gym, then he’ll go tonight with part of his path that he’s on. Tomorrow he’ll go live in practice again, which we’ll have to manage appropriately based on minutes the next two games.”
The Celtics’ two remaining scrimmages are Sunday against Phoenix and Tuesday against Houston.
Time is the enemy
Stevens being the creature of detail that he is, the slightest change in conditions can disrupt his plan. Such is the effect, apparently, from the NBA’s switch to 10-minute quarters. “I’ve got on my sheet to play eight guys in the first half, which isn’t necessarily indicative of how we’ll rotate when the season comes,” said Stevens. “These 10-minute quarters have thrown a wrench into that. So most likely, you won’t see any of the starters after halftime. But we’ll see how it goes.”