Jaylen Brown’s underwater workouts have made the rounds for years, but the Philadelphia 76ers star says the point of all that brutal training goes way beyond conditioning.
In a conversation with Hannah O’Flynn, Brown said the water has taught him something bigger than strength or stamina. It has forced him to slow down, stay composed, and understand what happens when panic starts to creep in.
“Water is unforgiving. It don’t care how much money you got, it don’t care how tall you are, how short you are.
It treats everybody the same. You have to humble yourself when you’re in the water, completely, or you will drown.
Two years ago, I couldn’t swim like that.”
Brown said the process changed the way he thinks about himself as much as it changed his body.
“As I started to learn about my relationship with water, I started to learn about myself. I never thought I would be able to swim in a 20-feet-deep pool with a weighted vest and all these different types of things.
I’m feeling like, at times, you’re about to drown. You have to get comfortable with that feeling.
Your body is sending off these reactions. Your alert system knows something is happening, but, in reality, you have a lot more time than you actually think.”
He connected that lesson to life outside the pool, too.
“In life, you might feel like you’re drowning at some point. If you panic, you’ll drown faster.
Taking your time, taking deep breaths, you’ll realize you have more time to think, prepare, figure out a plan, and swim out of it. Rather than spending your time panicking underwater because you’re drowning, you’re only going to make it worse.”
Brown has gone viral several times over the past few offseasons for clips of him training in pools with weighted vests, working underwater, and holding his breath for extended stretches. The spectacle grabs attention, but Brown says the real challenge is mental: learning to stay calm when everything in your body is telling you to panic.
That approach may come in handy as he gets ready for the biggest test of his NBA career. After a blockbuster trade from the Boston Celtics, Brown is now with the Philadelphia 76ers, who are viewed as one of the East’s biggest threats to the New York Knicks. The move ended Brown’s 10-year run in Boston and put him alongside Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and VJ Edgecombe.
There are also rumors that the Sixers could add LeBron James in free agency, with reports saying Embiid, Maxey, and Brown have all been in contact with the four-time MVP to make their pitch.
Brown has stayed in the news for another reason, too. Earlier this offseason, he liked a social media post that mocked former teammate Jayson Tatum for not publicly defending him before Boston traded him. That only adds another layer to the relationship between the two.
For Brown, though, the message stays the same: the underwater work is not about looking flashy. It’s about staying steady when pressure hits, and trusting that even when it feels like you’re sinking, there’s still time to breathe, think, and get out.
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