Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics is one of the smartest people in the NBA. When he was younger, some people called him “too smart for basketball”, but he is a living example that basketball skills and academics can go hand in hand. Following Friday’s game against the Washington Wizards, Jaylen Brown met Bill Nye, the man who inspired him.
Jaylen Brown Met His Childhood Hero Bill Nye
For a lot of basketball people, their childhood idol and hero might be a basketball star like Michael Jordan, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, or someone else. It depends on which era they grew up in. However, for Jaylen Brown, one of his biggest childhood heroes was Bill Nye, also known as The Science Guy.
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Three weeks ago, Jaylen tweeted,
“How can I meet Bill Nye, the science guy”
Turns out, his wish came true. Following the NBA Cup win against the Wizards, Brown got to meet Nye in the tunnels. The former NBA Finals MVP scored 31 points to lead his team to victory, yet he couldn’t be more excited about meeting the TV star who helped inspire his thirst for learning.
During the postgame press conference, he smiled and talked about how the visit was arranged. He said,
“I don’t know what made me even tweet that. I think I was just up thinking about just your educational experience and it just crossed my mind. I was like ‘Man I’ve got to meet this guy.’ His contributions to S.T.E.M. and S.T.E.A.M. have been amazing.”
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Speaking more about what Bill Nye did, Brown said,
“He made learning fun. Growing up, I used to be excited when the teacher used to say ‘We’re watching Bill Nye today’. Looking back on it, to be able to shake his hand, for him helping me on my educational journey, it was pretty cool tonight.”
Who is Bill Nye?
Born William Sanford Nye, Bill is famous for the television show Bill Nye the Science Guy, a show in which he showed practical examples of how science works. Fun fact: In the TV show Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper shows he is a big Bill Nye fan as well. The TV show ran from 1993 to 1998, with the final episode airing when Jaylen hadn’t quite yet turned two years old. Yet, teachers continued to show tapes of the show years after it went off the air. The Celtics star was just one of the many kids fascinated by it.
Jaylen Brown’s Educational Path
Jaylen Brown had a high school GPA of 3.1, showing that his intellectual prowess accompanied his basketball ability. When he was considering college, he had offers from some of the best basketball powerhouses in the country, including North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, and more.
As a five-star recruit, he chooses the University of California, Berkeley, surprising many scouts and basketball people. Brown has since said that when he weighed his options, he considered academics above all else. Today, Brown is a living example of the fact that the worlds of sports and education can go hand in hand. During his freshman year at Berkeley, he took up the challenge of a master’s level course in the Cultural Studies of Sport in Education program. Despite the pressures of a master’s level class, he was still amazing on the basketball court, winning the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year.
