Fifteen minutes into an interview, as Jaylen Brown is deep into an explanation on the ways that sports can be a mechanism for control, Joe Mazzulla busts through a door inside the Celtics’ practice facility. “The most interesting man in the world,” barks Boston’s head coach. “Just look at this m---erf---er.” Mazzulla gestures at Brown’s outfit, which includes an oversized down jacket and jet-black sneakers, both from Brown’s 741 collection, the clothing line the 28-year-old launched last fall after having concluded that the eight-figure offers dangled by legacy brands weren’t for him.
In itself, that is intriguing. In the NBA, generating off-the-court income can be formulaic. Endorsement deals are the simplest: Sign with a major company, shoot a few commercials, blast out some posts on social media and zip over to China every offseason to hawk your merch. Brown did a deal like this in 2016, signing with Adidas before his rookie season, a partnership that ended in 2021. After that, he listened to pitches, rejecting offers before ultimately deciding to forge his own path.
