Jaylen Brown gets brutally honest about ‘selling his soul’ to be MVP

Jailen Brown is one of the best wing players in the entire NBA, and that is being proven this season for Boston Celtics with Jayson Tatum out of the equation. As the Celtics’ leading option, Brown led his team to a 15-9 record after a quarter of a season, and he suddenly MVP joined the conversation in addition to Shai Giljus-Alexander, Nikola Jokic and others.

Between his scoring and defensive effort, Brown is once again proving that he is an All-Star talent in the Eastern Conference, and his leadership is why he is drawing attention in the MVP race.

However, Brown doesn’t seem to want to be in the same class as those competing for the MVP award, especially since he claims that those who want to be league MVP are simply “selling their soul.” become the best floppers in the NBA.

“This new generation, this new era — they’re bums. If you want to be a great player, you’ve got to sell your soul. You’ve got to be a thief,” Brown said on his recent Twitch stream. “If you want to be MVP, you want to be on top, you have to sell your soul and be a flopper. Y’all tell me: What do you want me to do? Y’all want me to be on it? I can do it!”

“I can start going to practice and work on, like, throwing my head (back).”

Of course, Brown is referring to the constant foul baiting that many other stars around the league participate in, as some of the highly skilled players who are constantly in the running for the MVP award are often called “foul baiters” by NBA fans.

James Harden famously earned that designation during his career with the Houston Rockets when he was at the forefront of the MVP conversation, and now both Shai Gilgitis-Alexander and Luka Doncic have been criticized at times for doing exactly what Brown described.

Between throwing their heads back while driving to the rim or yelling to try and bait the referees into calling fouls, SGA and Doncic are certainly known for shooting free throws because first and second rank in free throw attempts this season.

Brown has been in the league since 2016. He’s certainly seen his fair share of those who, in his opinion, “sold their souls” to be the best players in the league. While he would probably admit to falling at certain points during his career, Brown’s mindset is that he doesn’t want this style of play to define the type of player he is.

The Celtics star lets his play speak for itself, and that’s been enough this season to put him in the MVP conversation.

In 23 games, Brown averaged 29.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game while shooting 49.6 percent from the floor and 36.3 percent from 3-point range. His leadership and scoring put the Celtics in a position to contend this season, and without selling his soul, Brown has certainly become a talking point in the NBA MVP conversation.