Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens tackled a handful of subjects during Monday’s end-of-season press conference, including the knee injury that nagged Jaylen Brown throughout the playoffs.
Brown dealt with a partially torn meniscus that could require surgery, but it wasn’t revealed until the Celtics were eliminated by the New York Knicks in the second round. The 28-year-old tried to carry the team past the Knicks after losing Jayson Tatum to a devastating ruptured Achilles tendon, but Brown’s courage wasn’t enough.
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Now, it’s time for the Celtics and Brown to further evaluate the injury moving forward and into what’ll be a critical offseason.
“He saw our team (doctors) and a couple of other people, and as he even said a couple of weeks ago, the knee is in a good place, structurally,” Stevens said, per NBC Sports Boston. “So I think that he felt comfortable getting out there and going after it, and hopefully, he’ll feel better after being off of it for a couple of weeks here. That’s the unfortunate part is we’re doing in the middle of May, but some of these guys have some nicks, bruises and other things that it’ll be good to get some rest.”
Brown scored 26 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out a career-high 12 assists to push the Eastern Conference semifinals to a Game 6. From afar, the four-time All-Star seemed fine as Brown’s aggression, intensity, and on-court will to overcome the odds of a 3-1 series deficit were all present for the Celtics. But when Jalen Brunson’s Knicks returned to Madison Square Garden to host Boston in Game 6, everything collapsed for the title defenders, as Brown fouled out with 2:50 left in the third quarter.
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From there, that was all she wrote for Brown and the Celtics.
Boston received 22.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists of production from Brown throughout the playoffs, all while last season’s NBA Finals MVP fought to ignore a lingering knee injury that everyone within the organization was aware of.
“That’s been something that he’s had for a while, and it’s been stable,” Steven said. “And he’s played with it. So that’s been several scans through and through. So we’ve known that for a long time and he’s known that for a long time. But it just tells you these guys care. They care about winning. They care about playing. They care about playing well, and he’ll drive that, but certainly we’re thankful for how much and how hard he’s played.”
Brown signed a five-year, $304 million contract extension with the Celtics two years ago, the largest signed in NBA history at the time.
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Since then, Brown has responded to questions regarding the franchise’s decision to commit a then-record-large amount with two straight elite seasons. He’s worked tremendously in tandem with co-star Jayson Tatum, leading the team to back-to-back 60-plus win regular seasons and an eighth straight playoff appearance with Tatum.
The Celtics are already preparing to survive without Tatum’s services for most of next season, and regardless of Brown’s timeline, the organization is poised to make a handful of major changes before returning for Opening Night in October.