Author Topic: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?  (Read 7968 times)

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Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #15 on: June 25, 2016, 09:48:55 AM »

Offline Celtics17

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I don't think it's racist but it is prejudice. Intelligent and well educated people are often made fun of. People often call them ''brainiacks' and various other slurs. The idea that someone can't be intelligent and a great athlete is ridiculous. Look at Kobe, Tim Duncan, David Robinson and I am sure there are many others in the list. It's nothing but an attempt to tarnish the guy before he has ever even played in the NBA.

Larry Bird may have been the quickest player ever mentally, at least on court, and it worked out well for him.

Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #16 on: June 25, 2016, 09:58:38 AM »

Offline vjcsmoke

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I feel like people are too used to the image of the 'dumb' musclebound jock.  So when they run into someone who is the opposite.  An elite athlete, who is serious, who is educated, and who values education.  They are like whoa, this is not what I expected!

I feel like this is actually the best makeup for a Celtics star.  Jaylen is obviously well aware of the Celtics tradition and history.  That's the first thing he mentioned.  He is also extremely confident, stated right off the bat he wants to be a top 5 player in the league rather than worrying about where he was drafted.  That means he is aware he needs to put in a lot of work to get to the next level, regardless of where he starts from.

And think about this, if Jaylen Brown reaches his potential, he would become the face of the franchise for the next 10-15 years.  Wouldn't you rather have someone people can take seriously and respect, and give great interviews, than someone where you shake your head, hope he avoids saying something dumb and you'd think to youself - I wish the guy would stay OFF Twitter/facebook etc.

Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #17 on: June 25, 2016, 09:59:09 AM »

Offline positivitize

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He's a smart kid, I'm sure he understands that. There are plenty of graduate level courses though that don't require strict attendance, and the instructors are understanding of people who are working full-time, but you still get a Harvard quality education out of it, at the Harvard Extension School. He could easily take one of those courses each summer instead of playing video games, and it would not take away from his game at all. They are a bit expensive, but he will certainly have the money for it.

The majority of Harvard students are excellent at multi-tasking, and highly competitive. They get up very early in the morning to exercise or train for sports, then got to class, then go to volunteer activities that are fairly intense, then go back to class, then go to perform in team practice/games, then study, then do it all again the next day. He sounds like he would fit right in.

I'm sure he could take summer courses. And I think he's bright enough to handle the workload responsibly. I think classes during the fall or spring semester would be more difficult for him to integrate into his NBA life.

To be clear. I think it's great he wants to continue his education and I really respect him for that. I worry because graduate school is way more intrusive and disruptive than many people realize. Typically success in graduate school requires a sort of academic monomania. Typically success in the NBA requires a similar sort of monomania. Dyomania isn't really a thing.

Maybe he's a maniac. God I hope so.
My biases, in order of fervor:
Pro:
Smart, Brown, Hayward, Tatum, Kemba, Grant Williams, Sleepy Williams, Edwards!

Anti:
Kanter, Semi, Theis, Poierier

Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #18 on: June 25, 2016, 10:01:13 AM »

Offline Bobshot

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A reminder to me that Kobe Bryant was a top student at Lower Merion HS, a very good school
on Philly's Main Line. It doesn't hurt to have smarts.

Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #19 on: June 25, 2016, 10:04:06 AM »

Offline hwangjini_1

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My biggest worry is that his interests are too diverse.

There was an article floating around yesterday about how he plans to take graduate classes it MIT and Harvard. While I think that's great and ambitious and I'm happy for him to have that opportunity, graduate school isn't something attempted lightly. It's a huge suck on both time and energy, and something that requires a large percentage of one's focus in order to succeed. I think it is fantastic that he wants to challenge himself--he wants to win EVERYTHING, not just basketball--but everything that I've read about succeeding within the NBA says that the league needs to take up the player's lives. I don't worry about his work ethic. I worry about him spreading himself too thin and crashing, or getting bored of the daily grind of working out early in the morning, practicing and watching film, working out in the evening, traveling, sleeping at a hotel and repeating that process almost every day for years.  He's a 19 year old who thinks he can do EVERYTHING, and he probably could do ANYTHING, just not ALL THE THINGS.


There are not enough hours in the day.

(source: I'm finishing up my 2nd to last year in my PhD)
First, congrats on being ABD. Almost there! Do you have your D question all settled yet? And , what field, if I may ask?

Second, so much differs from grad school to school, program to program, department to department, prof to prof. If brown approached me as a prof, asking for independent study, no problem. And it gives him flexibility, etc. if he wanted to attend in the summer, again, no problem. So it is certainly possible for him to take classes.

Third, as noted above, he is 19. I am delighted, ecstatic a 19 year old guy wants to learn how to think in an organized manner. And at 19 virtually all male brains are scattered and unsettled. His is far better developed than most.  Wonderful.

Fourth, how do you think a curious, thirsty, eager mind will do when it meets CBS? Right now, brown wants to find something to focus on.  CBS will show him the cerebral part of basketball. I think brown will love it.

The more learn about brown, the more I like him as aperson and mind.  Now, if he can only learnto shoot three pointers we have a star. ;D

If he's taking a full course load, it's definitely an issue.  But if it's one (online) class, what's the problem? NBA players have free time, and there are MUCH worse things he could do with that time

Grad Level online courses are few and far between, and what I've seen from Brown gives me the impression that he values the intellectual atmosphere and collaboration of the classroom--which the online classes typically don't provide.

Typically a grad level class is a 3 hour seminar, one day a week, sometime between 5 and 10 PM. Typical homework for a graduate level class involves reading 2 books a week closely, and writing 2-5 pages about what you've read. I know that History, Literature, and Philosophy programs all have similar requirements. It' possible that graduate level hard science/economics courses require less work, but I tend to doubt it. Even if he had time to do the work, he would not be able to attend every class with the way the current NBA schedule is set up. If he misses 1 class, he's missed a week of class. If he's missed 3 classes, he's missed a fourth of the semester.

For example, I doubt that his schedule will allow him to commit himself to being somewhere every Thursday from 6 to 9. I also doubt that he'd be able to complete the work required at the level required without sacrificing from his attention to his game.
Dang. Hard to post using and iPad.
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Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #20 on: June 25, 2016, 10:06:41 AM »

Online celts55

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A reminder to me that Kobe Bryant was a top student at Lower Merion HS, a very good school
on Philly's Main Line. It doesn't hurt to have smarts.

That's my point. It's great to have smarts. So why do the folks at CSNNE seem to have an issue that he was playing chess with a 9 year old champ the night before the draft? What should he have been doing? Why don't they tell me what other guys were doing? For some reason, I just find the whole thing offensive. Could just me me.

Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #21 on: June 25, 2016, 10:08:02 AM »

Offline vjcsmoke

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Grad school?  You're putting the cart before the horse.  Don't forget that Jaylen Brown left college early to enter the lottery.  He would be completing his BA at this point! 

I don't know about you, but half my professors didn't even really check attendance at that level.  And Jaylen sounds smart enough that he could easily breeze through a bachelor's degree by doing self-study.  And at any rate there are plenty of adult study programs for part time students that offer flexibility when you will take the course.

To be clear. I think it's great he wants to continue his education and I really respect him for that. I worry because graduate school is way more intrusive and disruptive than many people realize. Typically success in graduate school requires a sort of academic monomania. Typically success in the NBA requires a similar sort of monomania. Dyomania isn't really a thing.

Maybe he's a maniac. God I hope so.

Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #22 on: June 25, 2016, 10:12:25 AM »

Online BitterJim

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My biggest worry is that his interests are too diverse.

There was an article floating around yesterday about how he plans to take graduate classes it MIT and Harvard. While I think that's great and ambitious and I'm happy for him to have that opportunity, graduate school isn't something attempted lightly. It's a huge suck on both time and energy, and something that requires a large percentage of one's focus in order to succeed. I think it is fantastic that he wants to challenge himself--he wants to win EVERYTHING, not just basketball--but everything that I've read about succeeding within the NBA says that the league needs to take up the player's lives. I don't worry about his work ethic. I worry about him spreading himself too thin and crashing, or getting bored of the daily grind of working out early in the morning, practicing and watching film, working out in the evening, traveling, sleeping at a hotel and repeating that process almost every day for years.  He's a 19 year old who thinks he can do EVERYTHING, and he probably could do ANYTHING, just not ALL THE THINGS.

There are not enough hours in the day.

(source: I'm finishing up my 2nd to last year in my PhD)

If he's taking a full course load, it's definitely an issue.  But if it's one (online) class, what's the problem? NBA players have free time, and there are MUCH worse things he could do with that time

Grad Level online courses are few and far between, and what I've seen from Brown gives me the impression that he values the intellectual atmosphere and collaboration of the classroom--which the online classes typically don't provide.

Typically a grad level class is a 3 hour seminar, one day a week, sometime between 5 and 10 PM. Typical homework for a graduate level class involves reading 2 books a week closely, and writing 2-5 pages about what you've read. I know that History, Literature, and Philosophy programs all have similar requirements. It' possible that graduate level hard science/economics courses require less work, but I tend to doubt it. Even if he had time to do the work, he would not be able to attend every class with the way the current NBA schedule is set up. If he misses 1 class, he's missed a week of class. If he's missed 3 classes, he's missed a fourth of the semester.

For example, I doubt that his schedule will allow him to commit himself to being somewhere every Thursday from 6 to 9. I also doubt that he'd be able to complete the work required at the level required without sacrificing from his attention to his game.

Since he hasn't finished his undergrad, I think he would be taking either undergrad classes toward a degree (which would be easy to find online) or grad courses not toward a degree (which wouldn't necessarily require enrollment, especially with MIT's open courseware).  In any case, I think exceptions could be made for his need constant commitments, allowing him to watch recorded lectures on his own time

And do we know what types of classes he took (like what department)? I've taken a couple of grad courses in engineering and they had much different commitments than the ones you described
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Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #23 on: June 25, 2016, 10:17:42 AM »

Offline GreenFaith1819

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He is rather intelligent. He is also VERY excited, I'm sure, about being the 3rd pick and the highest BOS pick in quite some time.

I have no doubt that he will accomplish everything he sets out to do.

Once the adrenaline wears off he'll find time to do the things he wants to do as well as set priorities.

Jaylen Brown will be FINE - and he'll still "rip people's heads off" in the process.

Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #24 on: June 25, 2016, 10:19:46 AM »

Offline knuckleballer

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A reminder to me that Kobe Bryant was a top student at Lower Merion HS, a very good school
on Philly's Main Line. It doesn't hurt to have smarts.

That's my point. It's great to have smarts. So why do the folks at CSNNE seem to have an issue that he was playing chess with a 9 year old champ the night before the draft? What should he have been doing? Why don't they tell me what other guys were doing? For some reason, I just find the whole thing offensive. Could just me me.

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Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #25 on: June 25, 2016, 10:21:48 AM »

Offline Snakehead

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It's not.

And personally I do see it as racist.  Some won't be happy with that but to me it's one of those double standards that's pretty clear.

To me he gives me some Andrew Luck vibes, a guy who was never criticized for this kind of thing.  A guy who would rather play Catan than go out and party and started a Book Club.  And I don't even blame guys for partying, I sure as hell did that.  I just think this is a positive for sure.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2016, 10:28:01 AM by Snakehead »
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Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #26 on: June 25, 2016, 10:36:04 AM »

Offline positivitize

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First, congrats on being ABD. Almost there! Do you have your D question all settled yet? And , what field, if I may ask?

Second, so much differs from grad school to school, program to program, department to department, prof to prof. If brown approached me as a prof, asking for independent study, no problem. And it gives him flexibility, etc. if he wanted to attend in the summer, again, no problem. So it is certainly possible for him to take classes.

Third, as noted above, he is 19. I am delighted, ecstatic a 19 year old guy wants to learn how to think in an organized manner. And at 19 virtually all male brains are scattered and unsettled. His is far better developed than most.  Wonderful.

Fourth, how do you think a curious, thirsty, eager mind will do when it meets CBS? Right now, brown wants to find something to focus on.  CBS will show him the cerebral part of basketball. I think brown will love it.

The more learn about brown, the more I like him as aperson and mind.  Now, if he can only learn to shoot three pointers we have a star. ;D

Dang. Hard to post using and iPad.

Formatting is fun on an Ipod. I'm assuming your post got gobbled up by your quotes.

Thanks! My field is in Early/Mid American Literature (or more specifically Herman Melville). Writing my dissertation now (in-between Celticsblog posts, of course). 3 Chapters down, 8 more to go. Ugh.

Of course it's highly customizable, but most programs have a limit as to how many independent studies one can take and still receive credit for (afaik). Maybe he's not after a degree, so taking a ton of independent studies would be right down his alley.

Quote
I am delighted, ecstatic a 19 year old guy wants to learn how to think in an organized manner

Ain't that the truth. I love where his head is at. I just worry that he might be full of youthful idealism and burn out trying to do too much.

As to your fourth, I think CBS is PERFECT for this kid. I am really excited about both the pick and the fit.

My biases, in order of fervor:
Pro:
Smart, Brown, Hayward, Tatum, Kemba, Grant Williams, Sleepy Williams, Edwards!

Anti:
Kanter, Semi, Theis, Poierier

Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #27 on: June 25, 2016, 10:46:28 AM »

Offline LooseCannon

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He seems like the kind of young man who wants to develop the social consciousness of someone like Bill Russell.
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Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #28 on: June 25, 2016, 10:50:23 AM »

Offline Celtics18

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I have no concerns about him not making basketball his top priority.  He seems highly motivated and dedicated to succeeding on the court.

If there's one thing I'm concerned about regarding his character, it's that he could rub his teammates the wrong way.  He seems to have a confidence and self-assuredness that could come across as arrogant.

The NBA, and sports in general, is very much about paying your dues and recognizing your place as a younger guy.

I trust Jaylen to figure it out and earn the respect of the vets, but that would be more of a concern than the risk of him prioritizing other interests above basketball.  I'm not worried in the least about the possibility of the latter.
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Re: Why is Brown being intelligent a negative?
« Reply #29 on: June 25, 2016, 10:52:54 AM »

Offline manl_lui

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listening to that excuse on 98.5 was infuriating! Felger and Mazz has absolutely no idea what they are talking about

"I don't like Brown, Ainge is doubling down and making excuses already, why is Brown even considered? oooo he has an NBA body, so does everybody else, oooo he has an education, big deal, how about basketball skills?"

listening to that makes me want to drive down to their station and strangle them!