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Celtics star Jaylen Brown stirs debate on race

ATLANTA — Jaylen Brown’s route from metro Atlanta’s Wheeler High School to the Boston Celtics is taking center stage in ways he couldn’t predict, sparking a national conversation about race, education and the fate of young black men.

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On Sunday, five years to the day Brown tweeted that a teacher told him he would go to jail, he scored 19 points in an NBA playoff game, including a posterizing dunk on Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Even before his viral dunk there was little indication in 2014 the then-17-year-old Marietta, Georgia, basketball phenom who practiced hot yoga, built houses for Habitat for Humanity and competed in chess tournaments would end up in jail.