Advertisement

Boston’s Jaylen Brown is excited to get on the court, but is taking care with his health

Justin Quinn
·3 min read

All-Star Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown looked as good as anyone on the team in preseason despite having surgery on his wrist in the offseason, and seemed ready to attack the looming 2021-22 NBA season with renewed vigor. And then he came down with COVID-19.

The rising veteran had to go into a 10-day quarantine per NBA rules governing their health and safety protocols. And it wasn’t entirely a period of asymptomatic rest for Brown, who spoke to the press about his experience with the viral malady ahead of the season opener on Wednesday morning. And even with his status for playing in said opener not yet certain, the Georgia native was upbeat.

“I’m pretty excited for our team to start the journey,” relayed Brown.

The Cal-Berkeley product shared that, contrary to early reports of his case being asymptomatic, he’d actually had to deal with some impingement on his breathing.

“I had some small symptoms. For the most part, the most concerning was my breathing. I had to really focus to get my breathing back to normal. That was the most concerning thing to me. But, the more I focused on it, the better I was able to gain more efficiency in it.”

“But, for the most part (I had) mild symptoms, nothing to concern,” he added.

Brown remained optimistic his post-COVID-19 recovery might go better than his fellow star forward Jayson Tatum’s did, which required a considerable period for the Duke product to fully get his wind back.

“Everybody’s body is different. Hopefully, it doesn’t take me as long as it did Jayson, but talking to him, he definitely had to use an inhaler. (The Celtics) have one available for me if I need one — hopefully, I won’t have to use it, but we’ll see. I feel pretty good for the most part just coming off of quarantine.”

“There’s obviously concerns, risk of injury,” added the Marietta native. “Some of the coaching staff are concerned it might be too soon (to return).”

Brown made it clear he would continue to investigate whether his body was truly ready for NBA-level play after the absence his positive COVID-19 case required.

And while we may not necessarily see the Cal-Berkeley product on the court for the season opener, an abundance of caution is absolutely the right call after such a COVID-19 cursed season.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

[lawrence-related id=61874,61863,61843,61837]

[listicle id=61388]

1

1