Lonzo Ball didn’t just defend Jaylen Brown’s place in Celtics lore - he tossed him into the upper reaches of the franchise’s all-time list.
On the Ball in the Family Podcast, the former NBA guard was asked about Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens saying Brown’s No. 7 jersey is likely headed for retirement. Ball didn’t hesitate.
“I gotta see all the accolades, but if you line up Boston’s best players ever, he’s in my top five,” Ball said. “So yeah, put that s*** up there.
Who’s f***ing with him on the wing? … Only two wings is better than him is Paul Pierce and Larry Bird.”
That’s a loud claim in a city with a giant history, and Ball made it even louder when he brought Larry Bird directly into the conversation.
“He’s low-key frying Bird,” Ball said. “I don’t want to be disrespectful… Bird is baking him too, but he’s baking Bird. Bird is baking him, too, but he is also getting to it… Jaylen Brown has a better chance of guarding him than he has of guarding Jaylen Brown.”
Ball also said he thinks Brown is the better player than Jayson Tatum, who was Brown’s Celtics teammate for nine seasons before getting traded to the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I think Brown’s a little better,” Ball said.
That’s where the debate starts to get crowded, because Boston’s all-time list is loaded. John Havlicek would be an obvious name in the mix. He remains the Celtics’ all-time leading scorer with 26,395 points, and his resume includes eight championships, 13 All-Star selections, 11 All-NBA nods and eight All-Defensive Team honors.
Bird’s own case is already locked in near the top of the franchise mountain. He won three titles, two Finals MVPs and three MVPs with Boston, along with 12 All-Star selections, 10 All-NBA honors and three All-Defensive Team appearances. By any sane measure, he sits behind only Bill Russell, who won a record 11 championships and isn’t likely to be bumped from the top spot.
Brown’s résumé is impressive, too. The No. 3 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft spent 10 seasons with the Celtics, winning a title, a Finals MVP and an Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
He also made five All-Star teams and two All-NBA teams. For Boston, that made him a beloved figure - which is why the trade hit so hard.
The Celtics dealt Brown to the 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks.
For Ball, though, Brown’s standing goes beyond one trophy case. He sees a wing who belongs in the conversation with the franchise’s best, even if the list of Celtics greats is so deep that every spot after Russell and Bird comes with a fight. Havlicek, Tatum, Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Bob Cousy, Dave Cowens, Kevin McHale - the names keep coming.
And that’s the problem with trying to rank Brown at No. 5 in Boston history. For almost any other team, he’d be right there. In Boston, the bar is brutal.
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