Jaylen Brown said all the right things Wednesday night. But it's clear he feels he should be joining Jayson Tatum at the NBA All-Star festivities this weekend.
The Boston Celtics wing officially missed out on his second straight All-Star nod Monday when NBA commissioner Adam Silver selected Cleveland Cavaliers big man Jarrett Allen as the injury replacement for Brooklyn Nets star James Harden, who is sidelined with a sore hamstring.
After Wednesday's loss to the Detroit Pistons, Brown claimed the All-Star "snub" didn't bother him.
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"I'm not really disappointed. Like I said before, I’m not losing sleep," Brown told reporters, as seen in the video above. "I think that my ability on both sides of the ball speaks for itself. I’m not going to knock any of those other guys. Congratulations to them. But, I think it's situational, to be honest. I think maybe some other things go into it that maybe we don’t know about right now.
"For me, JT will hold it down for the both of us. It’s not that big of a deal, to be honest. More important for us is to continue to win games and get ready for the playoffs. Obviously, I think I deserve it, but that’s life. It is what it is. It ain't gonna stop me. It ain't gonna stop my work ethic, it ain't gonna stop my platforms. So in reality, it's not that important."
Make no mistake, though: Brown -- who's averaging 23.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game this season -- thinks he should be an All-Star. And his Instagram story before Wednesday's game proved that.
Brown used a popular Kanye West meme to deliver a simple message: "Jaylen Brown should be an all star."
That's about as straightforward as it gets, and despite Brown's public comments, his recent play suggests the revenge tour has already begun: The 25-year-old has poured in 60 total points over his last two games (including a game-high 31 points Wednesday night) since Allen was announced as an injury replacement.
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"Obviously everybody's going to say, 'You didn't get it now, it's revenge.' But it is what it is," Brown said. "I come out and play, I give full effort on both ends of the ball through injury, coming back through injury, so I feel like people know what it is."
Thanks to Brown's Instagram post, we also know where he stands on the matter.