Will Jaylen Brown Mimic Chicago Bulls Legend This Season?

Is Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown about to experience his Scottie Pippen moment?

Brown was the subject of conversation on a recent “Garden Report” podcast episode, in which The Athletic’s Law Murray and CLNS Media’s Bobby Manning discussed whether or not the Celtics will be a winning team during the upcoming season. In Murray’s eyes, the presence of Brown should prevent Boston from tanking.

“Jaylen Brown’s too good,” Murray said. 

“This is the opportunity that, if you’re Jaylen Brown, you should have wanted this your whole career.”

Murray then compared Brown’s upcoming opportunity in 2025-26 with Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen’s 1993-94 season, which Pippen played entirely without Michael Jordan. Pippen was 28 years old during this season and in the prime of his career. He had an amazing season without MJ and further enhanced his reputation as a superstar, leading the Bulls to the third-best record in the NBA.

Pippen had the best individual year of his career up to that point, finishing No. 8 in the league in scoring. He was the leading vote-getter for the All-NBA First Team and finished third in NBA MVP voting.

Here’s what former Bulls head coach Phil Jackson had to say about Pippen’s 1993-94 season, per NBA.com’s Adam Fluck:

“Everyone worked hard at it and Scottie was an unbelievable leader that year, probably deserving of MVP in the league,” Jackson said, per Fluck. “That was a year in which he had shown everyone the quality level that he could play at and his team played very well, very unselfishly.”

Could Brown be on the verge of a similar year?

Murray didn’t outright predict that Brown will be an MVP candidate, but he did commit to the Pippen comparison.

“We think about how people talk about Scottie Pippen just off of the year that he got to play in his prime without Michael Jordan on the team and what that did for him,” Murray said.

“So this is Jaylen Brown’s time. … This is probably (the) one time in (his) prime with this franchise to be the that dude, and we’re gonna learn a lot about Jaylen Brown, and we’re gonna learn a lot about Joe Mazzula, a guy who did not get as much credit as he should have for winning a championship and keeping things afloat … because people thought that he was only benefiting from a special roster. His roster is anything but special right now, and he has one player who I would consider a tier two or above player. And so it’s a big year for both of those men.”

Brown will be 28 years old at the start of next season.