Jaylen Brown is a fan of his new Philadelphia 76ers teammates, regardless of their previous encounters when he was a member of the Boston Celtics.
In particular, Brown spoke about his admiration for last year’s No. 3 pick by the 76ers, VJ Edgecombe, who has quickly shown his potential to become an NBA All-Star in the future.
During Brown’s introductory press conference, a reporter mentioned the similarities between Edgecombe and Brown’s careers, as they were high draft picks who joined competitive teams early in their careers.
“Yeah, I think VJ is in a similar situation, maybe that I was a couple of years ago, where we had some of those rosters that were really stacked with a decent amount of talent, and I looked at it like a learning opportunity,” Brown said, referencing his former teammates, including Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker, and Gordon Hayward.
“Some of that stuff I benefitted from later in my career, because I took the time to learn and talk to and watch their workouts and see their mentality and approach and take things that they do well and add it to my game,” he said.
He said he planned to “be in VJ’s ear all year to just learn and grow” and spoke about Edgecombe’s potential talent as his career develops in the NBA.
“His talent level- he’s gonna carve out space for himself just because of his talent alone, so I’m excited for VJ, and I’m a fan. He killed us in that series. It was a lot of the other guys we knew about, but he was a difference-maker a lot of times when we played him in the series. I’m a fan from afar for sure,” Brown said.
As a rookie, Edgecombe averaged 16 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and a 43.8% field goal percentage. He earned All-NBA Rookie First Team honors due to his numbers, but then got his first taste of the postseason against Brown and the Celtics.
In the 76ers’ first-round playoff series, Edgecombe put together several huge scoring performances, including dropping 30 at Boston in a 111-97 Game 2 win. He also came up big in the series-deciding Game 7 at Boston, scoring 23 points to help eliminate the previously favored Celtics.
Now he and Brown will be in the same starting lineup, playing for the shared goal of helping the 76ers win games, reach the postseason, and claim the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
With Edgecombe entering his second season, it seems he will benefit immensely from now having Brown and the legend LeBron James as veteran stars to learn from, potentially helping him take his game to another level.
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