DETROIT — After Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury last May was followed by several notable departures in the offseason, it was widely believed that the Celtics would take a gap year and shift their focus toward 2026-27.
Instead, they have roared toward the top of the standings and improbably emerged as an Eastern Conference contender. And forward Jaylen Brown has been at the center of the revival.
On Monday afternoon, Brown was rewarded for his sparkling start to this season by being named an All-Star starter for the first time. It will be his fifth All-Star Game appearance.
“Really happy for him,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “I think for him it started in the offseason with just the way he approached it, the professionalism he had with the work ethic, to get in healthy and to come in and kind of set the tone for the building, and working with each guy separately. To get that honor is cool, and obviously getting to coach him, you don’t want to take for granted getting to coach great players. So, really happy for him.”
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Brown entered Monday night’s game against the Pistons averaging 29.7 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game, the points and assists being career highs.
“My expectation was to come out and play hard and maximize my team’s potential, just from a leadership standpoint and my standpoint, just be as aggressive as I can every time I touch the ball, and just be calm and poised and see where that takes me,” Brown said Saturday before going out to score 41 points in a rout of the Hawks. “I didn’t really have an expectation as far as I wanted us to be the first seed or etc. I just wanted us to come out, and with all these guys that are no longer with us, just come out and compete and play hard, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
This season for the first time, All-Star starters were chosen without factoring in position. Fifty percent of the vote was determined by fans, with players and a panel of media comprising 25 percent apiece.
Brown finished first in the media vote, third in the player vote, and fifth in the fan vote.
The other Eastern Conference starters are Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee), Jalen Brunson (New York), Cade Cunningham (Detroit), and Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia).
The Western Conference starters are Stephen Curry (Golden State), Luka Dončić (Los Angeles Lakers), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City), Nikola Jokić (Denver), and Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio).
The Feb. 15 All-Star Game format has been altered, too, with two teams of US players and one world squad taking part in a round-robin tournament.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.
