“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Sun Tzu and Michael Corleone must have been NBA fans. Because of the nature of basketball, you’re constantly up in your opponent’s face. Offense. Defense. Offense. Defense. It’s a relentless cycle that repeats over and over again, play after play, game after game, season after season.
For Jaylen Brown, this is his relationship with Giannis Antetokounmpo. As Boston’s best defender with the requisite athleticism, size, and speed to keep up with the MVP, he’s often matched up with him on both ends of the floor. After getting unceremoniously eliminated in last year’s second round series and with a rematch on the horizon tomorrow, Brown embraces the challenge, saying, “I guess that chess game kind of starts now.