Jaylen Brown opens up about past criticisms of his left hand

Lots of Jaylen Brown’s previous critics have been silenced this season because the Celtics famous person propelled himself into the MVP dialog with out Jayson Tatum.

However there have been loads of fierce criticisms of 1 particular facet of Brown’s recreation previously: his left hand.

For a large chunk of his profession, Brown struggled when pressured to his left facet, ceaselessly shedding his dribble and struggling to drive the lane with the identical ferocity that he would to his proper.

It’s one thing that’s improved over the past two seasons, and that has been largely as a consequence of Brown’s clear invoice of well being. When Brown was struggling essentially the most driving to his left, it coincided with a critical left wrist harm he was working by on the court docket.

“I believe there was some fact to it,” Brown instructed NBC Sports activities Boston’s Brian Scalabrine. “I bought an enormous scar proper right here, I had a serious surgical procedure on my left wrist, after which I truly re-injured it once more in 2023.

“So, 2021 I had a serious harm the place I tore all of the ligaments in my left hand. And basketball the sport is ruthless, if groups know you will have an harm they’re going to attempt to power you to that.”

Since fixing his wrist once more in 2023, Brown hasn’t had any actual points with it, and it’s proven on the court docket. He drives extra confidently to the left now, and has been a transparent scoring risk on both facet of the court docket.

“I believe that was an actual criticism or critique of my recreation is that I struggled going left, however a number of that was as a consequence of harm,” Brown mentioned. “And as I’ve gotten extra wholesome, I’ve completed stem cells and stuff like that in my wrist. It’s helped enhance the pliability and the movement, and I’ve been capable of get again to being extra progressive with my left hand.

“At one level I might barely dribble the ball with my left hand at instances.”

These points are within the rearview mirror, and Brown’s monitoring for one of the best offensive season of his profession. His 28.7 factors, 7.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists per recreation this season are all career-highs as he flirted with MVP conversations and carried Boston to a top-4 playoff seed with out a lot of a supporting solid round him.

This season, Brown proved that it isn’t Batman and Robin in Boston. Brown is a bonafide star, particularly when he can generate scoring from anyplace on the ground.