"I Didn't Peak At 21" - Jaylen Brown's Latest Sit Down With Taylor Rooks Was Fantastic

By pretty much every metric, including the eye ball test, Jaylen Brown is having a breakout season. While he didn't get selected to this weekend's All Star Game, he's putting up All Star quality numbers of 20.2/6.4/2.2/1.1 on 49/38% splits with 2.1 3PM a night. He's doing things that we are only seeing from some of the best players in the entire NBA when you combine the production with the efficiency. He's been fantastic. Which is why when I saw he had another long interview with Taylor Rooks, of course I couldn't watch it fast enough. At the same time I was a little nervous because we all remember what happened the last time these two got together

she got him to throw out the "win 5 titles in a row" thing. That was unfortunate and taken out of context and pretty much set the tone for the entire season. Even Ainge chewed him out for it. So this time around, with things a billion times better I was interested to see how Jaylen would approach this interview, and I have to say it was fascinating and loaded with good nuggets. See for yourself

First off, Jaylen's look here is fantastic. 10 out of 10. A look you or I would never even consider rocking, but Jaylen pulls it off flawlessly. I suggest you take the full 13 minutes and watch the whole thing, but these are the things that stood out to me.

Why he's so good this season

Right off the bat Jaylen pretty much admits what we all knew. He was unhappy with how things were delegated last season and there were too many bodies. It's no coincidence the first thing he said was this year there's a lot more "space". That doesn't mean spacing on the floor, that means guys have room to breathe in their roles and to do their thing because there are less bodies. Coming off the bench fucked with Jaylen's head and his anxiety, which is really impressive when you realize he was really fucking good over the last like 3-4 months of the season. Even Ainge mentioned it when he got his extension this year how he was impressed with the way Jaylen handled all that.

His extension

Interesting to hear that Jaylen knew he was going to get killed by the public about his extension. I remember that day well. Twitter, mostly Lakers and Sixers fans, couldn't get the jokes off fast enough about what an overpayment that was. But like you heard Jaylen say, he didn't peak at 21. Now look, his extension looks like a goddamn STEAL with how he's playing. Ainge took the gamble that Jaylen would get better and that his best days were ahead of him, and look who appears to be right. 

Cut my hair cut my care

Listen, if there's one thing I will go to my grave with, it's the idea of this team's players get better when they cut their hair. Haircut science is rock solid, so much so that when we first saw Jaylen in this new look I wrote about it. The evidence supports it.

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So not only did Jaylen change his mindset with his new look, it's helped propel him into a breakout season. It was shocking at the time, but now I'm beyond grateful that he did it. 

His love for Kemba

Not a coincidence Jaylen mentioned Team USA and how important that was. That was the whole reason I was excited four Celtics played on that team. You can tell the love for Kemba is real, and even more important is how obvious it is that Jaylen respects him. Remember, he hated Kyrie like poison. I think it's pretty clear that Kemba's support and love of the two Jays has played a major role in their seasons. The vibe is different and just hearing Jaylen talk about Kemba you can tell.

Safe to say, the interview this time around went a whole lot better than what we got last year. That comes with experience and Jaylen is one of the most polished young players in the league so it shouldn't really be a surprise. Just listening to him you hear a guy that is maturing right before our eyes both on and off the floor, and when you combine the two you get a pretty terrifying basketball player