Basketball, a game, is second nature to men like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. They are superhuman talents who have failed more than any of us have in the thing they’ve mastered, yet have succeeded to a level so rare, it’s practically untouchable. Thus, the failures, while parsed at the moment, are rendered moot after 82 games plus the playoffs. But on the internet? Failure is front and center — failure to respond, failure to adhere to expectations, failure to please everyone. It’s a subjective monster, and yet Tatum and Brown seem to have conquered it all.
In writing about the way both Tatum and Brown have navigated, if not mastered, the age of social media, CelticsBlog’s Michael Pearce summed it up perfectly: “The maturity, judgment, and decision-making related sections of the human brain aren’t fully developed until 25, but Tatum and Brown have always been built different, so it’s no surprise they’ve surpassed their peers in yet another way.