Jaylen Brown has yet to sign a long-term contract extension with the Celtics, but he's still showing up for the Boston community.
Brown joined Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and several neighborhood leaders Friday morning at Fenelon Street Playground in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester to help paint and re-design the playground's basketball court.
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The 26-year-old addressed the small crowd in attendance, stressing the importance of providing support and resources to the city's youth in underserved areas.
"It's always about the next generation," Brown said, as seen in the video above. "I know as an athlete, sometimes you're removed from these spaces. They put you over in these areas where they forget about the communities that you come from.
"And since I've been an athlete, since I've been here, I've been refusing to do that, and this is one small example of what's going on here in these spaces in Boston. But as long as I'm here, these things will continue."
Brown has been very active in the Boston community since joining the Celtics as the No. 3 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. He collaborated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create the Bridge Program, which mentors Greater Boston students of color who are interested in pursuing careers in math and science, and also created the 7uice Foundation to help combat race-based inequities in education and household income.
Brown insisted he's committed to continuing that work, regardless of where his NBA career takes him.
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"This is just a small example of what needs to go on here in communities like this," Brown added. "Yeah I know, (we've got) a fancy court and we've got cameras here and everything seems to be great, but it's a lot of issues that we've got to continue to attack. There's a lot of conversations that need to continue to be had, and as long as I'm here, as long as I'm alive, I'm going to continue to do that."
Brown has had a busy past few days; he was in Spain earlier in the week for an NBA Players Association event and made a stop in New York on Thursday night for an interview with ABC News' Linsey Davis. As a result, his contract negotiations with the Celtics reportedly are on temporary hold.
Now that Brown is back stateside, however, it's possible he and the Celtics resume those talks, and all indications are that the All-Star wing will sign his five-year, supermax extension with Boston once he and the C's agree on the terms of the contract.
In the meantime, expect Brown to keep putting in the work both on and off the court in Boston.
