Jaylen Brown, a star player for the Celtics, says he cares a lot about kids and making the Boston neighborhood better.
A lot of people came out to meet Brown on Friday at Dorchester’s Fenelon Street Playground. Brown is leading a project to redesign the court with Northeastern University junior Kaiya Santos and the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Brown has been busy this summer. He just got back from a trip to Spain, and he is still trying to get his contract extended. His deal with the Celtics would be the richest in NBA history if he takes the super-max offer of $304 million over five years.
But on Friday, none of that was important to Brown. Kids wearing Celtics shirts were thrilled to meet their hero and took selfies with him.
“It’s always about the next generation,” spoke Brown. “I know that sometimes as an athlete you’re taken out of these places and put in places where you forget about where you come from.” That’s something I haven’t done since I got here. As long as I’m here, these things will keep happening. This is just one small example of what’s going on in these places in Boston.
Brown is from Marietta, Georgia, which is about 20 minutes outside of Atlanta. He is using his Red Bull funding to redesign and fix up the Fenelon Street Playground, which is just a few blocks from Franklin Park Zoo.
The basketball court will be changed into one with multitone blues, orange, red, and yellow lightning bolts, and cool zigzags within the next month. Santos made the design. He won Red Bull’s “Get In The Paint” contest, where artists were asked to show how they thought the field would look in the future.
Santos told the Herald in March, “It really does feel great to know that my art is going to help people. I feel like there’s a big stigma around art, and people think it’s a little silly or useless.”
Mayor Michelle Wu was impressed by Brown’s service to the community. She pointed out that the Celtics fan favorite puts on an event every year at the Museum of Fine Arts to raise money for social justice causes in Boston and across the country.
The mayor said of Brown, “I’m just always blown away.” “He’ll just show up at a court to hang out and make sure our young people see themselves in roles that are possible for them in the future.”
Brown started the 7uice Foundation and the BRIDGE program with his family to help students get jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math since he joined the Celtics in 2016. The 7uice Foundation works to improve education and address other social issues.
Brown said of the Fenelon Street Playground, “It will be a place where many of our young people play and participate. But this place also shows what needs to be done more here in Boston.” For kids to play on, we need more than just a nice-looking court. Boston’s wealth gap needs to be closed. We need to make more resources, jobs, and chances available.