Add Tacko Fall to the small chorus of voices that say Jaylen Brown is being disrespected.
In a recent interview with Bally Sports, the 7-foot-6 big man, who signed a one-year deal this week to play in the Chinese Basketball Association, said he thinks Brown deserves more credit than he receives for the Celtics' success.
"I think Jaylen is very disrespected," said Fall. "I think he doesn't get the praise he deserves sometimes and he's a great player. Jaylen is nice, and for him, he just gotta keep doing what he's doing. He's very focused, he's very locked in. He knows what he wants to accomplish, and they're doing well."
Brown was at the center of Kevin Durant trade rumors for most of the summer, which seemingly bothered the 25-year-old wing man. At one point, he "favorited" a tweet from somebody who said Celtics fans don't respect him.
The Nets and Durant reached an agreement this week for him to remain in Brooklyn. Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens told "Merloni, Fauria & Mego" he's spoken to Brown recently about the Durant speculation.
"Jaylen's been through this from the standpoint of listening, and the noise has been around him for a long time," said Stevens. "I think one of the things you have to be able to do is ignore the noise and know what's important. Also, be able to reach out and have candid and transparent communications with the people involved. We've had those and been very open from the get-go as all of this has been going on for any of our guys. I sat down with Jaylen last week in LA. He looked great, and he will be back to Boston soon."
The Celtics are counting on it. They're featuring Brown in their ticket sale advertisements and recently retweeted a bunch of Brown highlights.
Fall did mention he thinks the organization respects Brown — the disrespect comes more from the fans.
"The outside noise doesn't really matter. It's what the organization thinks of him, and I know the organization thinks greatly of him, and I know he loves Boston, so that's all that matters," he said.
If Brown feels similarly, the Celtics should have little to worry about. Training camp begins next month.
