[For this
year’s Super Bowl series, I wanted to highlight inspiring American sports stories
and figures, past and present. Leading up to a special pre-Valentine’s tribute
to my two favorite American athletes!]
On two
inspiring layers to the most recent NBA Finals MVP.
I wrote briefly
about the inspiring stories behind Boston Celtics superstar Jaylen Brown in this
Saturday Evening Post Considering History column on the Celtics. In lieu
of a full first paragraph here I’d ask you to check out that column if you
would, and then come on back for more on what makes Brown such an inspiring
sports story.
Welcome
back! Brown’s social and political advocacy and activism are without doubt the
most inspiring layers to his career and life, far beyond the basketball court,
and were nicely traced in this excellent William
Rhoden essay for Andscape. It’s not just that he’s so committed to those
efforts, but also the language and ideas on which they depend—look at the homepage for his 7uice
Foundation, for example, which leads with “A History of Systemic Racism”! I’ve
written before in this space about the 2015-2017 Boston
Globe Spotlight investigation
which revealed that the median
net worth for Black families in Boston was $8, a statistic that is as complicated
as statistics always are but that nonetheless captures quite definitively
the legacies of systemic racism in the city for which Brown plays professional basketball.
Brown’s foundation represents a direct and vital response to such histories and
realities, and that alone makes him one of our most inspiring contemporary athletes.
But as his
excellent Hot
Ones interview reminded us,
there’s even more to Brown than his combination of athletic and activist
achievements. A Berkeley grad who was offered
a NASA internship, became the youngest person ever to deliver
an invited lecture at Harvard when he did so at the age of 21, and in his role
as an MIT Media
Lab Fellow co-founded the
Bridge Program which mentors Boston high schoolers of color who are
interested in STEM, Brown was described by certain scouts as “too
smart” for the NBA before he was drafted in 2016. Obviously that
perspective is caught up in all kinds of limited and prejudicial mindsets that
tell us more about those holding them than they ever could about Brown. But
there’s no doubt that he’s a unique professional athlete in any sport, and from
any time period, one who exemplifies the best kind of Renaissance person that also
can and should inspire all of us to be our most multilayered and best selves.
Last
inspiring story tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Inspiring sports stories or figures you’d highlight?
