NBA star reflects on high school teacher who told him he’d end up in jail
The lives of young Black men like Jaylen Brown matter in more ways than one.
And you would think a teacher would try to inspire all their students to excel. But one Georgia teacher tried to do the exact opposite.
Brown, who is a star player for the Boston Celtics, reflected this past Sunday on an old tweet about a negative teacher who told the then 17-year-old Georgia high school student that he’d be in jail in a matter of time, The AJC reports.
“My teacher said she will look me up in the Cobb county jail in 5 years .. Wow,” Brown tweeted at the time on April 28, 2014.
The tweet has resurfaced and ignited a conversation into race and privilege and how negatively a young Black man like Brown was viewed at a predominately white school.
Despite the fact that Brown was a junior with a promising future, he faced an educator whose damaging outlook on his life could have derailed his trajectory.
But Brown didn’t let the teacher’s discouraging words cement his fate. He became successful anyway.
Brown went on to get offered a scholarship to play at the prestigious University of California, Berkeley. He then secured his future by becoming the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft.
Brown however doesn’t hold any ill feelings toward the teacher who failed to encourage him.
“In Georgia, the educational system isn’t the best. I don’t really put too much blame on the teachers,” Brown said Monday. “You have one teacher handling 35 kids in one class…So who knows what was going through her mind that day when she said that. So, I let it be in the past and use it as motivation.”
Brown won’t release the name of the teacher at Wheeler High School who made the remark.
On Monday, the Cobb County school district said in an emailed statement: “The teachers and staff of Cobb County are united in a single purpose – to see each and every one of our students succeed. We are proud of everything that Jaylen Brown has accomplished.”
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