Jaylen Brown is taking the leap this season, proving he can carry a top flight NBA team. But he doesn't sound thrilled with the sacrifices he's had to make.
The Boston Celtics are one of the more positive stories of the still-young 2025-26 NBA season. Despite the losses of Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday, in addition to the lengthy injury absence of Jayson Tatum, the Celtics are 15-9 and playing at an extremely high level on the offensive end under head coach Joe Mazzulla. Some of that can be traced to an impeccable offensive infrastructure and system implemented by the coaching staff, but the Celtics still have a top-tier scoring threat in Jaylen Brown that makes everything easier on the supporting cast.
In fact, Brown is arguably enjoying the best start of his already impressive career. The 29-year-old is averaging 29.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game and posting career-best efficiency (58.9 percent true shooting) in the process. Through Dec. 8, Brown is sixth in the NBA in scoring, and he is clearly tracking toward his fourth All-Star appearance.
With that as the backdrop, it might be a surprise to learn that Brown was recently captured speaking in an interesting way on the scoring and offensive landscape in the NBA. Brown was narrating and breaking down some game film when he cited a "new generation" and a "new era" that leads to his belief that star players in the modern NBA have to "sell (their) soul" and "be a flopper" to reach the loftiest heights.
“If you want to be a great player, you gotta sell your soul," Brown said. "You gotta be a flopper. If you want to be a MVP, you want to be top of the top, you gotta sell your soul and just be a flopper. Y'all tell me. What y'all want me to do? Y'all want me to be on that? I could do it. I could start going to practice and like, working on ... like working on throwing my head, you know what I mean?"
Do you really need to sell your soul to be an NBA star?
It seems like an odd framing from Brown, especially given his ascent this season. By any measure, he is producing at a star level in 2025-26 and, given the tenor of his comments, Brown clearly believes he has not given himself over to this mindset. Granted, he is averaging a career-best 7.1 free throw attempts per game, but most of that can perhaps be traced to larger overall usage, and Brown seems to think he could raise that if he would lean into more foul-drawing behavior.
It is true that the NBA's two leading scorers -- Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander -- are also the top two players in free throw attempts this season. However, they are followed on the current scoring leaderboard by Tyrese Maxey and Donovan Mitchell, neither of whom is in the top eight in free throw attempts per game. Also, Nikola Jokic is only on the fringe of the top 10, averaging an almost identical number of free throw attempts to Brown, and he is clearly on track to be an inner-circle Hall of Fame player. Lastly, Stephen Curry has a career average of 4.3 free throw attempts per game and, while he is a clear outlier in many ways, there is proof that stardom can be achieved in a different way.
There is, of course, nuance in the conversation. Star players do need be able to create free throw attempts in order to maximize efficiency and effectiveness. That is an undeniable part of the sport at its highest level and, beyond that, stars also tend to get calls that other players may not. Still, there is a long record of top-tier stars that are not "floppers" in the way that Brown describes, and Brown doesn't even need to look beyond his own contributions this season to see that.