$285 million star Jaylen Brown has young kid going nuts after gifting him shoes off his feet
NBA champion Jaylen Brown was spotted at Rucker Park in the Harlem neighborhood of New York on Friday. The Boston Celtics guard/forward is currently enjoying the offseason and took some time out to visit one of New York's most famous playgrounds.
A visit from an NBA Finals MVP will obviously attract a lot of attention, and Brown did not disappoint the group of fans who showed up to watch him in action. After taking a few shots and working on his game, Brown offered fans a chance to win a pair of his exclusive signature sneakers that were yet to be released.
Brown chose to go with a somewhat easy trivia question when quizzing fans and offered the shoes he was wearing to the first person who responded with the correct answer.
"We got some shoes on the line all right," says Brown. "What famous basketball player with a big afro played here on this court?"
Within a few seconds, one young boy shouted "Dr. J, Dr. J" (referring to NBA great Julius Erving) and bounced off ecstatically with the kicks.
Some of the players and fans on the court surrounded the boy and could be heard saying, "Unreleased, unreleased!" A series of short clips of his visit to Rucker Park were posted on Brown's Instagram account.
Jaylen Brown, who signed a lucrative five-year, $285 million contract with the Boston Celtics last year, was making his first visit to Rucker Park. The court is well-known among basketball fans around the globe. Some of the game's greatest professional and streetball players have made their name at the playground.
In 2002, Kobe Bryant dazzled New Yorkers with a dominant display at Rucker Park. A few years later, in 2011, Kevin Durant put up a memorable 66-point display at the Entertainers Basketball Classic tournament that is still talked about.
New York legends like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Rafer Alston also mastered their skills at the famous court.
Jaylen Brown will be aiming to make his third NBA finals appearance in four seasons in 2024-25
Over the last four seasons, Jaylen Brown has developed into one of the game's elite offensive threats. He has been named to the All-Star team in three of the last four years and was an All-NBA second-team selection in 2023. Over eight seasons in the league, he is averaging 18.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists.
The versatile guard/forward helped guide the Boston Celtics to a record 18th NBA title last season, defeating the Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the finals. Brown was also a member of the 2022 team that won the Eastern Conference before eventually falling just short in the finals against the Golden State Warriors.
With many of their talented stars set to return, the Celtics will once again begin the upcoming season as one of the favorites in the East alongside the Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks.