Fresh off the cover of TIME, Jaylen Brown is continuing to prove that he’s one of the NBA’s most interesting players. The 27-year-old, who helped the Boston Celtics win their 18th championship in June, recently tackled hot questions and even hotter wings in his “Hot Ones” appearance in which he said “technology is dope” and that one of the best things about his life is that he learned how to play chess.
Hot Ones host Sean Evans asked Brown a series of questions as the star shooting guard and small forward completed rounds of eating chicken wings coated in spicy hot sauce — we should note that he did not take a sip of the water or milk that was provided; though he did inquire as to whether previous contestants needed water, showing that his competitive spirit extends beyond the court.
Brown acknowledged he doesn’t do too many podcasts or talk too much in interviews but that he knows there’s been a lot out there about him this summer — from the Stephen A. drama to the Olympics snub.
“Some of the narratives kind of float, and I allowed them to float, but going forward I look forward to like clearing up some misconceptions and addressing some things in the past,” said Brown, who wore a ‘State your source’ t-shirt at Boston’s championship parade. “Maybe Stephen A. and I will have a sit-down at some point and hash things out.”
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But the focus is also on basketball right now. With the preseason upon us (the Celtics got off on the right foot Friday in Abu Dhabi), Boston is getting ready to defend their championship, and Brown said the team’s mindset is about fighting complacency.
“I think the pressure and the expectation level needs to be raised,” he told Evans. “Human nature kind of sneaks in once you win, and makes you kind of relax.”
One of the key people in helping his team on that quest is head coach Joe Mazzulla, who has become known for some bizarre metaphors on occasion.
As an example, Brown said, “One of Coach Mazzulla’s favorite things is like ‘there’s no such thing as a foul. Either you die or you don’t.”
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“He just has a bunch of like crazy quotes and mentality, like one of the things he’s coined is like we call our offense like the killer whale offense and we attack seals, cause killer whales like how they hunt seals, and we study like how killer whales attack as a unit and then we built our offense kind of like off killer whales,” Brown expanded. “So Joe definitely has a bunch of crazy stuff but there’s a method to his madness and obviously it works.”
From Mazzulla’s madness to Brown’s favorite philosopher — Tupac or Socrates — the Celtics star covered a wide range of topics in this particular interview, including the importance of technology, and the pros and cons of advanced statistics.
“I think technology is a great way to make the world more efficient. I definitely think ethics is something that should be maintained as technology advances because there’s no governance as we continue to make new things but technology is dope,” Brown said. “I’m super into it and I cant wait to be able to give it to communities that can benefit the most from it.”
Brown thinks the crossover between sports and technology, with analytics and data definitely leads to good results, but he says that he’s still a big believer in just the feel of a situation.
“I’m a big feel guy,” he said. “I trust the numbers but if a guy is hot or if a guy’s got it going, like the numbers and system it don’t matter. You gotta feed the hot hand so it’s just a balance and some people have better feels than others.”
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Celtics star Jaylen Brown launched Boston XChange, a nonprofit he wants to spur economic growth in traditionally under-invested communities.
Brown, who is somewhat of a history buff, said he has trouble choosing who is the NBA’s most historical figure but he offered up a few names, including a Celtics icon.
“Of course you’d go Michael Jordan for his marketability and how he globalized the game especially during that Olympic timeframe, but you can also say from a cultural standpoint,” Brown started off. “Allen Iverson, and just him integrating culture which is so influential between music, sport, art, fashion, and how he represented like that, that urbanist of basketball.”
“Kobe Bryant and his mentality and how that translated from generation to generation and that’s going to continue to translate,” Brown continued. “Steph Curry influence on his generation. You see how the game is played now, it’s all threes.”
Lastly, Brown pointed out Bill Russell.
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“Not just in sports, being the most winningest player, but how he seen his influence beyond an athlete or an entertainer. A lot of guys just want to keep it sports and basketball, but I think our value, our influence goes beyond and it depends if we want to use it or not, that’s it.”
Brown, who is already using his own influence to go beyond basketball, talked about the importance of self expression, saying, “I always encourage people to do what makes them feel the most expressive. We’re born to kind of stand out, so don’t be afraid to be unique, don’t be afraid to be yourself and don’t be afraid to think for yourself, that’s most important.”
Boston Celtics superstar Jaylen Brown just revealed his new sneaker. Here’s what the name of his new brand, 741, means; how Brown got here after falling out with Nike; and what people around Boston think of the shoe so far.
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Brown, who was selected by the Celtics with the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft, was asked if he remembers his first “welcome to the NBA moment” — and he certainly does.
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“When that first check hits your bank account, you know, welcome,” he revealed. “That was my welcome cause like I told them to mail it to me so I could just feel it and touch it, I wanted to see my first check. I wanted to feel it in my hand. The first check I got was like $182,000 or something like that, and I remember seeing that as an 18-year-old coming from a single parent household, I was like alright, welcome to the NBA.”
Since that moment, Brown has certainly found more success in the league and now has one of the largest contracts in NBA history. The three-time NBA All-Star said his all-time favorite NBA buzzer beater is definitely in last season’s finals.
“Game 3, we were in Dallas. We were up 2-0, and they were storming back, like the Mavericks got hot. Kyrie started going crazy, like one minute, I feel like I hit a shot that kind of halted their momentum and kind of helped us carry out and get the win,” he shared. “That was this year and I think that ultimately help us get the championship.”
Brown also discussed his unique take on scouting other players, likening it all to “poetry in motion.”
“Being an elite defender you gotta study guys rhythm, there’s a rhythm and a cadence to how some people play, so if you see like certain guys they play to a certain beat, to a certain cadence. They play a certain style and if you know their style you can time what they’re gonna do next because you know the rhythm and the [beats per minute] that they kinda play at,” Brown said.
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“Luka [Doncic] has a unique rhythm. It’s almost so slow that it’s hard to time. Kyrie [Irving] has a unique rhythm as well, very one of one, so his moves and his cadences is sometimes very, very hard to time he has a lot of counter moves like he can go and pivot off both feet, he can shoot with both hands, he can drive both directions which makes his rhythm a lot harder to track. Some guys only go right, some guys only go left, some guys have two moves that they go to. So I look at basketball as like poetry in motion, which is music, and everybody is playing their own song you know, and everybody samples from different artists, and they playing their own song and if you wanna stop them you gotta study their rhythm. You gotta learn when their beat is about to drop.”
It’s a unique perspective from someone who was the captain of his middle school chess team and loves the game to this day.
“I was a big gambit guy, I think one of the best things about my life is that I learned the game of chess,” Brown said. “Depending on what gambit, what trap or what style of play, you’re thinking about the end in the beginning, and in life, I like to encourage more to do the same, like think about the beginning and the end, like what is your mission? What is your purpose? What do you want your legacy to be? And you start to play the game based upon how you want to finish.”
The Celtics may be far off from this feat but many are already looking ahead to the end of the 2024-2025 season, hoping Boston can defend their title. Brown says the C’s will win back-to-back NBA finals if they stay healthy.
“Looking forward to this upcoming season,” he said. “Make sure you stop and see a game.”
One autumn evening in 2020, the late poet Louise Glück walked into the snug dining room of the Somerville Peruvian restaurant Celeste. Glück found her usual table — the one between the two air conditioning vents — and greeted her usual server, Gonzalo, who waited on her every time she stopped in for ceviche de pescado and an IPA. But this evening was different from the others.
Glück had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature the day before and, amid a wave of public attention, craved the normalcy of enjoying a meal at one of her favorite restaurants. Ahead of Glück’s standing reservation, Celeste’s founders Maria Rondeau and chef JuanMa Calderon had filled the dining room with friends to ensure the new Nobel Laureate could dine in peace. A tabletop bouquet was the only memento marking her achievement.
“All she wanted was to be at Celeste and not think about anything else,” said Rondeau. “At the same time, we were nervous. We’d waited on the same lady every day, but now she was something else. It was a moment of joyous togetherness.”
Glück’s connection to Celeste is uniquely intense — so intense, in fact, that Rondeau and Calderon’s new restaurant opening in Back Bay, Rosa y Marigold, shares a name with Glück’s last published work. It’s also a particularly profound example of how Boston writers have long found comfort, camaraderie and sometimes safety in the city’s bars, cafes and restaurants.
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From the bygone Harvard Square Spanish spot Irunåa where Robert Lowell hosted post-workshop office hours to the old Ground Round off Soldiers Field Road where reporters for The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine and the Boston Phoenix grabbed drinks after media-league softball games, local eateries have literally and figuratively fueled generations of Boston academics, journalists, novelists and poets. So, we asked some of these writers to tell us where they typically go for a coffee, a meal, a conversation, or a moment of peace.
Zarlasht Niaz, novelist
Zarlasht Niaz, author of novel-in-verse “Unfurling,” at the Newsfeed Cafe at the Boston Public Library. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Zarlasht Niaz recently came to Boston from Minneapolis to begin her tenure as the Boston Public Library’s 2025-26 writer-in-residence. The Afghan American writer is managing an online literary journal that centers writing from and about Afghanistan while working on her debut novel-in-verse. Despite her newcomer status, she has already found some gastronomic staples.
Niaz regularly stops into BPL’s Newsfeed Café for arepas from the Somerville-based Venezuelan catering company Carolicious; lattes from a talented, unnamed barista — “When that person’s working, I get really excited,” said Niaz — and live public radio programming from the other NPR affiliate in town.
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She also frequents Anoush’ella’s South Boston location, whose Eastern Mediterranean flavors call to mind home food. “They have these salads with a lot of different herbs and they remind me of the salads I grew up eating,” said Niaz. Turmeric House in Braintree hits similarly. “A perfect cup of chai. A perfect kebab. Yeah, I can’t wait to go back.”
Stephen Greenblatt, literary historian
Author Stephen Greenblatt at Cambridge restaurant Giulia, on Massachusetts Ave. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Having devoted decades to unpacking the work of Renaissance writers, particularly William Shakespeare, it’s no wonder that the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning literary historian Stephen Greenblatt gravitates toward cuisine that could’ve conceivably appeared in “Julius Caesar.”
The Cambridge Italian staple Giulia is his undisputed go-to. “I know Italian food quite well, because we spend quite a lot of time in Rome,” said Greenblatt. “Guilia is unusually creative.” He often orders the pappardelle with wild boar topped with black trumpet mushrooms and parmigiano.
“The chef, Michael Pagliarini, is extremely talented and alert to what really good Italian food is like,” he said.
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Greenblatt also ventures to the eastern edges of the Mediterranean basin when visiting Oleana (which recently received a Michelin Guide recommendation), but his dessert of choice there is decidedly American. “I like Oleana quite a lot, particularly for the wonderful baked Alaska, which is, I think, one of the great desserts that one can get,” said Greenblatt.
Golden, poet and photographer
Golden moved to Boston in 2018 following a celebrated poetry slam guest performance at Haley House in Roxbury and quickly became a fixture within the local literary scene. In the time since, the Black, gender-nonconforming trans writer and photographer has turned out two collections of poetry and images, served as Boston’s 2020-21 artist in residence, and earned a handful of high-profile fellowships. Golden is now relocating to their home state of Virginia to pursue an MFA, but they depart with close community ties, including connections to a couple of keystone Jamaica Plain restaurants.
Galway House, on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, Boston. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
“When I first moved to Boston, I lived on Centre Street by Jackson Square and we would always go to Galway House,” said Golden. “They have affordable, consistent food and a lot of community members I know love going there.”
The Haven, one of the Boston area’s only Scottish spots, is another JP essential for Golden. “I love the Haven Burger — it’s one of my favorites. And I love a good French fry and you can’t go wrong with that there,” Golden said. “I love filling food and food that you can enjoy with friends. That’s where my brain goes when I’m deciding where to eat.”
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Laura Zigman, novelist
The fiction of Laura Zigman often hinges on the heightened emotionalism that comes with navigating life’s highs and lows, beginning with her debut 1997 novel “Animal Husbandry,” which was optioned and became the basis for a romantic comedy starring Ashley Judd and a young Hugh Jackman. But when it comes to going out for a drink or something to eat, Zigman looks to avoid drama at all costs.
Bar Enza, located in the Charles Hotel near Harvard Square, is her ideal venue for meeting friends. “They have really nice wine and cocktails, even though I really don’t drink anymore,” Zigman said. “When you come in for a drink, they’ll give you a velvet banquette that’s beautiful where you can talk and actually hear each other and I just love it.”
The entrance to George Howell Coffee and Lovestruck Books, in Cambridge, Mass. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
For coffee, Zigman prefers George Howell Coffee nestled inside the nearby Lovestruck Books. The location itself is freighted with Cambridge cafe history, standing not far from where Howell’s original Coffee Connection once operated between 1975 and 1996 before Starbucks acquired and rebranded it and its 18 local sister stores.
“Coffee Connection was one of those places that I just lived in when I was a teenager,” said Zigman. “They had French roast, French presses, and big barrels of coffee beans with burlap covers. The new George Howell inside Lovestruck is great — it’s cozy, smells like coffee, and it’s pink and red inside.”
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Paul Tremblay, novelist
Author Paul Tremblay, by the Hamilton Restaurant and Bar, near Coolidge Corner in Brookline, Mass. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Brookline Booksmith near Coolidge Corner is a key location for the multi-time Bram Stoker Award-winning horror novelist Paul Tremblay. He visited the shop for the first time early in his writing career to attend a Stewart O’Nan reading and, in the years since, has gone back numerous times to do readings of his own and participate in author events.
Virtually every trip Tremblay makes to Brookline Booksmith goes hand-in-hand with a stop at Hamilton Restaurant and Bar, whose distinctive red awning with a silhouette of its namesake Founding Father casts a shadow on Beacon Street less than a block away.
“Invariably, before the event starts, usually at 7 p.m., all the writers involved and sometimes their family too will meet at Hamilton,” said Tremblay. “It’s such a relaxed vibe — a pub-style place with friendly staff, good food and drink, and, when the weather is warm, a nice outdoor space.”
When Tremblay is nearer to home in the Greater Boston suburbs, he regularly visits Northern Spy, a Canton-based restaurant from the owners of Loyal Nine that serves New England cuisine and operates out of Paul Revere’s historic Rolling Copper Mill.
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“It’s a newer restaurant and it’s got a beautiful interior,” he said. “For people who dare trek outside of Boston and want to meet, it’s a go-to place.”
Megan Marshall, biographer
Biographer Megan Marshall looks across Belmont Street from the window of Praliné French Patisserie’s location in Belmont, Mass. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Megan Marshall arrived in the Boston area in 1973 and has since seen slews of writer-saturated restaurants come and go. She remembers meeting the eminent editor Justin Kaplan at the long-defunct Harvard Square fondue place, Swiss Alps, to get guidance on her biography of Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia Peabody, which eventually earned her the Pulitzer Prize. And she recalls grabbing coffee and cinnamon toast from a drugstore with an old-fashioned soda fountain that once stood on Boylston Street in between research sessions at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
These days, Marshall often finds herself at the Cambridge French patisserie Praliné. “They’re such lovely people there and they speak French, which makes me feel cosmopolitan and their croissants are, I think, the best in the Boston area,” said Marshall.
She also enjoys Praliné’s imported French loose-leaf tea, Mariage Frères. “I get little boxes of it to give as presents. People I know who have spent time in Paris say, ‘Oh, you must be just back from Paris,’ because there’s this impression that you can only get Mariage Frères there,” she said. “But you can get it at Praliné and impress anybody you know who’s Parisian.”
BOSTON (WHDH) – Police are investigating a stabbing in Boston on Sunday afternoon that left a victim with life-threatening injuries.
Officers responding to a reported stabbing in the area of 71 Summer St. around 3:30 p.m. found a victim who was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries that are considered life-threatening, according to Boston police.
No arrests have been made.
No additional information was immediately available.
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This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.
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The Trump administration’s accusation that Boston’s housing policies discriminate against white residents is part of a disturbing pattern (“US to investigate Boston for bias,” Page A1, Dec. 13). This is no mere policy debate. It is a calculated attempt by conservatives to whitewash history. They hope that if the past can be obliterated, then present-day racial inequality can be repackaged as something that never even existed.
For centuries, Black Americans have been subjected to legally enforced discrimination in housing, education, employment, lending, and voting, atop generations of enslavement. These evils shaped who accumulated wealth and opportunity and who did not. The Civil Rights Act made discriminatory practices illegal, but it did not erase the advantages and disadvantages those systems had already created. That’s why policies such as Boston’s were conceived — not as rewards or punishments but rather as pragmatic efforts to narrow gaps that were deliberately built.
Opposition to these programs is an attack on history and truth itself. Limiting what can be talked about in schools, removing displays honoring the struggles of Black Americans, taking Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth off of the calendar of fee-free days at national parks — these are all part of a coordinated and cynical strategy to foster ignorance in America. This scheme allows the Trump team to attack programs such as Boston’s or any DEI policy and call it a defense of fairness and neutrality. It’s another Big Lie.
For this president and the movement he leads, ignorance is no longer a mere failure of politics. It is the whole point.
