Then-Cal star Brown predicted NBA Finals success at 2016 Warriors game

Then-Cal star Brown predicted NBA Finals success at 2016 Warriors game originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area

Jaylen Brown knew he would be special long before he took home the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award for his time with Boston Celtics 2024 NBA Finals Dominants run.

It was during pregame warmups in a 2016 playoff game between the Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Oracle Arena that the then-Cal Bear big guard took his shot.

“I’m Jaylen Brown, [I attend] California Berkeley just down the street, [and] one day I will be here [NBA] Finals,” Brown said… “I want to be here so bad. I will be here.” (h/t Point forward)

During that night in Oakland, the current Celtics guard was just a hopeful 2016 NBA Draft prospect.

Brown was coming out of a strong freshman campaign at Berkeley, where the then-19-year-old was selected All-Pac-12 after averaging 14.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2 assists per game.

He also took Cal to the 2016 NCAA Tournament, which the program has not returned to since.

Brown has come a long way since watching the Warriors and Cavs face off at the height of the rivalry.

In fact, he was surprised to watch the Golden State players warm up – not yet knowing he would face some of them in the 2022 NBA Finals.

“Right now, I have an adrenaline rush,” Brown shared. “I’m watching Steph Curry warm up, I’m watching Andre Iguodala warm up. I feel excited and ready to go. The draft is coming and I will get my chance.”

While Brown knew he would reach the NBA Finals as a professional, he certainly couldn’t have imagined that his first series on the game’s biggest stage would be against the same Warriors six years later where his Celtics would fall to Curry and Iguodala’s team in six games – we talk about a full circle.

Also in the video, Brown spoke with Iguodala, and the two wished each other luck before the report.

“Andre, he was my coach at NBA camp about three years ago,” Brown said in 2016. “So he came up to me, this was the first time I’d seen him in three years. He remembered me and said he called. He said I knew it would be ‘here’.

“It’s almost unreal. It’s a great feeling. It means I have the chance to do something special. He – I’m obviously unique. I appreciate Iggy, man. We have a good relationship… I don’t even know how I should react [what he said]But it’s great.”

Igudola knew something about Brown that NBA scouts didn’t, as he had his eye on the reigning Finals MVP since he was in high school.

However, scouts would catch up to the now-retired 19-year NBA veteran as Brown was selected third overall by the Celtics in 2016.

Brown, who has improved year after year, has surprisingly turned his vision into reality. In addition to recently winning his first title, Brown also became – and still is – the highest-paid player in the league – and that’s history – after signing a contract five years, US$303.7 million supermax extension last summer, which was the first $300 million contract an NBA player had ever seen.

At age 27, Brown averaged 23.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 19 games in the 2024 playoffs, and won Finals MVP for admirable two-way efforts against the Mavericks’ Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. .

Before Brown broke through in the NBA with Boston, he was first a huge fan and prospect in the baywatching Golden State dominate like everyone else.

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