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Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown takes his mother on a surreal journey

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On Friday, the Boston Celtics held a huge parade to rejoice their record 18th NBA championship. For Mechalle Brown, mother of NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, the last five days have been very busy.

In Brown’s world, it takes a village to boost a child, and a victory for one is a victory for all. This week it gave the impression of the entire village was calling for celebration.

“It was very surreal,” Brown said Thursday from Boston. “Did this really occur? It was a huge, overwhelming feeling of joy and happiness. It was hot. It was busy with all calls. People keep calling, my phone keeps ringing.

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“I’m ready for this to finish. I’m glad they won, but there was a lot going on.

I watched Monday’s podium celebration and waited, like everyone else, to see who would win the Finals MVP, aka the NBA’s version of the Best Actor Oscar.

Although it takes a village to win, there is just one MVP.

Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown accepts the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award after Boston’s 106-88 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 17 in Boston.
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Brown was probably the most rated player within the postseason, but with forward Jayson Tatum having a monster game on Monday, there was a likelihood Tatum can be a popular selection – not the correct one, but a popular one.

When NBA commissioner Adam Silver called Brown, I used to be pleasantly surprised. A wave of emotions washed over Mechalle Brown. She closed her eyes, hugged her youngest son, and a wave of memories and emotions flooded her.

“First we see him when he is 9 months old, chasing a ball, then he is 27 years old and everything he has worked for and put great effort into has happened,” she said. “Knowing that he wanted it so bad and that he was able to help his team and get recognition at the same time, there’s nothing better than seeing it all come full circle. It was just overwhelming and an amazing feeling to see that.”

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Later, within the postgame interview room, Brown described a dream he had earlier that day. He dreamed that when he woke up, his maternal grandmother, Dianne Varnado, wrapped her arms around him. “I knew everything would be fine,” he said. Mechalle Brown burst into tears when she heard her son remember her mother, who died in March 2023.

“When he talked about my mom and his dream, that’s what made me cry,” she said. “I wanted him to succeed, but it was too much for me.”

Mechalle Brown and her brother Byron Varnado were born and raised in Muskegon, Michigan. Eventually she moved to Atlanta, and every summer her two sons spent a few weeks in Michigan with their grandparents.

Her grandmother, an educator, helped establish the foundations of discipline for the boys. She gave them homework and reading to do before they went to play basketball. “What kid wants to do homework in the summer?” Mechalle Brown said. “All the things she did and why she did them, he understood growing up. He didn’t like them on the time, but later he understood why.

She added that her mother “played a huge role in shaping who Jaylen is by being a person of service and learning by example.

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“She treated people with kindness, whether it was the most important person or someone who wasn’t the most important person,” Mechalle Brown said. “She always acted this way. She made sure Jaylen and Quenton had values, that they had character and integrity as young black men, and the way they conducted themselves. She taught them how to use their voices. When Jaylen cried, he knew that everything he was, he saw that that was where it came from. She was the originator of the idea.”

Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown during a dunk during Game 3 of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks on June 12 on the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

What’s next for Brown? Thanks to the NBA title and the Finals MVP award, his level is raised. His mother said her son will proceed to work with the 7uice foundation and develop a bridge program that provides brown and black youth the chance to pursue their dreams in fields aside from athletics.

One thing Brown won’t do is let fame and money drown out his voice. Brown and his mother discussed the subject three years ago when he traveled to Atlanta in 2020 to take part in a demonstration following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

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“He said, ‘I have a lot of money, but I’m still a man, I’m still a black man, and my voice needs to be heard,’” Mechalle Brown said, recalling a conversation she had together with her son.

“We had this conversation and that’s what led him to go to Atlanta. Because no matter how much money he has, he is still seen as a black man and must stand up to the injustice he sees in the world. Fortunately, he has a platform that most people don’t have.”

She also wants her son to earn a degree at Cal, where he spent nine months before starting his NBA profession. Mechalle Brown received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and her MBA from American InterContinental University. Her mother earned a degree from Grand Valley State University. “Athletics was never my passion,” she said. “My goal was education. I definitely want him to return back and finish it. We’ll speak about it in the summertime. He promised it to me and his grandmother.

With the whole lot Brown has on his plate, graduating won’t be easy. On the opposite hand, making it to the NBA wasn’t easy, nor was winning the NBA title and being Finals MVP.

As Mechalle Brown told her sons from a young age, “Struggling is inevitable when you’re trying to achieve great success.”

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We finished our conversation. Mechalle Brown graciously used her time. There was a lot to do now – more calls to make, more friends and relatives to entertain. Of course, there have been preparations for the championship parade.

Brown said she is looking forward to Friday’s festivities.

“I’m really excited about the parade,” she said. “I’m excited to see it in motion and witness it. It’s a part of our family history.

“This is the cherry on top.”

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Indeed, the Brown family finally gets the parade it deserves.

William C. Rhoden, former award-winning sports columnist for The New York Times and creator of Forty Million Dollar Slaves, is Andscape’s lead author.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Jalen Milroe can follow the Jalen path in NFL

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Star Black playmakers aren’t any longer an exception – they’re the rule. Throughout the entire football season, this series will discover the importance and influence of black QB from bottom -up to NFL.


Indianapolis-keep me, should you heard it earlier: playmaker Alabama born in Texas, who’s a stronger runner than a passerby, will probably be called outside the first round of the NFL Draft.

The playmaker was undefeated in Sec as a primary -year starter.

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The playmaker never played for the same offensive coordinator.

The name of the playmaker is even Jalen.

But it isn’t clear that Jalen hurts. This winter he was busy winning the Super Bowl MVP, and he didn’t play Iron Bowl or against Michigan.

Instead, it’s a former playmaker of Crimson Tide Jalen Milroewho last week Combine Combine tried to convey the case to the trainers and evaluators that he – like his namesake – is price being their playmaker franchise in the future despite questions on his ability.

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“I went through adversity. I saw everything as a quarterback, “Milroe said on Friday. “I played at the most difficult conference in the country. It would be easier to play at other conferences, but what I could see in Sec catapulted me that I was ready to play NFL. “

Alabama, Jalen Milroe, talks to the media during the NFL mix at the Lucas Oil stadium on February 28 at Indianapolis.

Justin Casterline/Getty Images

Departing from Katy in Texas, she originally got involved in Texas in 2019, but a 12 months later she fell to Alabama. After he was sitting behind the Crimson Tide Starter Bryung for 2 seasons, Milroe took his reins in the 2023 season. He helped Alabama survive Sec (8-0) this 12 months, won by the conference rival and two-time defender Georgia in the SEC championship, which caused Crimson Tide to the play-off collection.

But while Milroe had a big arm (his 10 yards for the test took third place in Sec in 2023), the pass was not his strong suit. For two seasons as a starter Milroe never achieved 3000 yards in one season, the first starter of Alabama, who did it because it … hurts.

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Hurts, from Houston, led Crimson Tide to the National National Championships in 2016–17, but during these two seasons were lower than 5,000 yards. While Hurts was a singular Rusher (1,809 yards and 21 sticks) at the moment, his weakness as a passerby is known for led to the spare Tua Tavailoa during the break of the national championships in 2017.

In the mix, Milroe decided that despite his pedestrian passes, he was still worthy of being a start at NFL.

He is aware of his weaknesses and swore that he worked in the ass to enhance outside being “one dimension.” He could move when his legendary trainer, Nick Saban, retired after the 2023 season, but decided to not fall off. He traveled six miles a day to ensure that that something was left in the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter. He studied progression and reads after I-SNAP to lift his IQ in football.

Unlike the forecast sorts of the first round, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, Milroe threw a mix on Saturday, hoping that he would show the bands that he has mechanics to do that to the playmaker NFL. It turned out to be a mixed bag. Milroe showed strong arm strength and a very good location of sail routes, curls and it while throwing exercises, but fought accuracy on intermediate and on the routes.

“That’s so many things that I can learn more where I am today and where I will be when it comes to day 1, starting with NFL,” said Milroe before Saturday exercises. “Always be a game student, at all times attempt to develop, because it would be so many opportunities in which I can look back and say that it was the moment after I grew up as a playmaker.

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“That’s right now, I’m just trying to grow as much as possible, put my best foot forward and just look for development.”

Jalen Milroe warms up during seniors training at the Hancock Whitney stadium on January 29 at Mobile, Alabama.

Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images

Milroe was asked that he was one other playmaker in Alabama to succeed in the mix, following in the footsteps of the role (who moved to Oklahoma in 2019), Tavailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. Milroe said he appreciates being in the company of others, but he added that it’s difficult to check him with others.

“We had different bands, we had different players around us, we had a different system,” he said.

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But when he specifically asked what he could study the journey of Hurts-from the first manager of the game after the super Bowl-Milroe master said he inspired him his companion Alabam.

“The most important thing I learned from J. Hurts is how he kept his head (I) always continued to work,” said Milroe. “He at all times raised his game, he has never been self -deserved, and all the pieces you see is great progress from him.

“And I have to applaud him as a person, he as a man, because he is definitely inspiring for many playmakers of my image, as well as many playmakers throughout the country. He leads to all of us. “

The couple isn’t completely similar. Hurts had about 20 kilos on Milroe when he was in college. Milroe has a stronger arm, while Hurts played more and not using a mistake of football: Milroe threw 17 interceptions and ate 67 bags for 2 seasons as a starter in comparison with 10 captures Hurts and 43 bags.

But they can each be changing the game when their teams need them. In a highly publicized match against Georgia at the starting of the last season, Milroe finished almost 82% of his passes on 374 yards and two appointments, adding 117 yards to the ground for the next two results.

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Milroe can also match the wounds in the so -called “Jalen-ISMS. “

“Climbing upstairs is not easy, but when you reach the top of this mountain, you will learn so many things when it comes to adversity when it comes to difficulties, things along the way,” said Milroe in a mix.

Martenzie Johnson is an older author for Andcape. His favorite film moment is that Django said: “You all want to see something?”

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This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Like Tommie Smith and John Carlos from 1968. Black Power Salute inspired me to find my goal

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I’d say that I grew up within the household to be sure that that me and my siblings were aware of the black history. My parents invested in the gathering of black encyclopedias. On the duvet we had a version of the Bible with Black Jesus. Our house was stuffed with books of black novelists and thinkers, and if a black document appeared, we watched it. I watched all movies made on television about Dr. King, each “Roots” and “Alex Haley’s Queen” and I sat for all 14 hours “Eyes on the reward”-as a toddler. Bless my heart.

Having said this, there have been pockets of black history, and more likely that I had no opportunity to delve into once I was a toddler. The college was where all the will for information and understanding of the combined. I attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., One of a very powerful historically black universities within the country. It was there that I met people from around the globe whose knowledge about black history differed (often depending on the colleges and the communities by which we lived), but everyone had hunger to learn more.

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One day, through the first yr, I remember one among my friends in a T -shirt by which I had definitely seen before, but I never paid attention to. There was a black and white screen printing on the shirt (what I do know now) the enduring moment on the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, where on the rostrum for 200-meter medals, Tommie Smith, John Carlos (races 1. And 3. Place Finaners) Everyone gathered a black fist in gloves while he played “Star Spangled Banner”. Peter Norman, the second place from Australia, wore a human rights badge, like Smith and Carlos.

Not only did they raise the fist of black power (although they each said it was for human rights), they received medals in black socks to represent poverty within the black community, and Smith wore a black scarf for black pride. Carlos showed solidarity with blue-wheeled employees, unpacking the jacket and wore a necklace from the beads for individuals who were lynched. Due to the state of Black America in 1968 and a continuing struggle for equality and civil rights, there have been calls to a boycott of the Games. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was also killed in April this yr – and all three athletes were inspired enough to find a way to do it on the rostrum, which led to one of the crucial durable images of public protest.

I remember how I learned history and realized that on the most important scene these brave men used their moment of triumph and victory to quietly protest against the conditions of underrated communities in America. I felt strengthened; We often discuss standing on the arms of giants, however the more I got into the history of black in America, the more I spotted what number of giants there have been. In college I used to be very bad and for a while ready to burn every part that represented the establishment or any obstacle to black liberation. I felt like all those individuals who even saw their space on the planet in reference to individuals who could never give you the option to speak as heroes whose lives were to be modeled later. Especially since it was also fastidiously that putting people in front of him can often bring an enormous personal loss.

When Smith and Carlos took their position, they were booed on the stadium and ordered to be sent home by the International Olympic Committee. The athletes returned home, but they weren’t welcomed by the hero, but as a substitute of rough sleds, and even in some cases the specter of death. They were also not beloved by athletes. Two men, associated eternally in history, even have a good relationship –Carlos even claims that he let Smith go within the race Because “Tommie Smith would never put his fist in the sky if I won this race,” the claim that Smith denies.

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History ultimately has a way of rights, but it surely took a few years and realizations on the front of social policy, in order that the actions of those persons are perceived as brave and needed, not only selfish and smug.

The lessons that I learned from College and continuous reading and education I gained (my head remained within the book about black history) were one among the best advantages in HBCU. The very variety of books I learned about about which I actually have never heard of – I actually have upheld me all my life.

That is why I remember sooner or later I used to be walking around Washington, the eastern Washington market and a street seller was selling different photos of moments in black history, and he had a 40 -inch photo within the Tommie Smith and John Carlos frame. I paid for it in money and spent it across the capital of the country until I returned home. I do know that it happened in 2005 (I finished Morehouse College in 2001) because I just moved to my first apartment with no roommate and it was the very first thing that I actually have ever suspended on the wall. This picture within the frame still hangs on the wall in my home in 2025 and I used it to teach my children about sacrifice and privilege and how you may have to discuss individuals who cannot.

Teenage students of Stax Music Academy Mark 25th anniversary, black history month with a concert

The query that my youngest children often ask: “How do I know who can’t speak for herself?” Which is an incredible query. For this I answered an easy fact, pointing to the photo:

“These men have made a gesture that gave people whose most of us, including them, would never see or never know them, but on which life negatively affects the alternatives of the wealthy and the federal government. Sometimes you may have to take this chance to say something because you do not know in the event you’ll ever have such a big platform.

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Son, there may be at all times someone who cannot speak for himself, and you may have to use it in a voice, because perhaps the thing you say or a stand that can help someone you understand, live a greater life. ”

I take advantage of words that may understand a little bit higher, but I can inform you that my children have a look at this photo on a regular basis, and once one among my sons said: “These guys are heroes, right?”

I say yes, they’re. They are the heroes of the Black History.

They will live eternally for speaking, and even quietly, in solidarity with those that couldn’t.

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Panama Jackson Thegrio.com

(Tagstranslate) @Ap

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Main Treasury Official Morgan State University, Sterling Steward, died

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Morgan State University, Sterling Steward


Morgan State University announced that his older associate athletics director and tax director, Sterling Steward, died.

No reason for death was disclosed, but the college has confirmed his contribution since he was employed in December 2022.

Steward died on February 26. In Morgan State he was accountable for the event of university programs, supporting partnerships and strengthening the financial and operational success of the Faculty.

“Sterling was more than a colleague-he was a respected leader, mentor and friend,” said in a written statement by Den Freeman-Patton, vice chairman and director of inter-university athletes. “His passion for athletics and commitment to raising Morgan programs were visible in everything he did. He worked tirelessly to ensure that our sports students had resources and the possibilities of distinction, and its impact will be felt for many years. We expand our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, especially his three sons and sister when we mourn this huge loss. “

While the steward worked in Morgan, strategic growth and cooperation occurred. His work with the institutional development department helped to offer more opportunities and created lasting relationships to support sports programs.

Steward earlier he worked At the University of New Orleans (UNO) as an assistant to the college athletics director for strategic income generation. He also made stays on the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Savannah State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Alabama State University, Kentucky State University, Eastern Oregon University and Xavier University in various roles, including for a senior consultant athletics director and sports director.

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He was from New Orleans, who received the title of bachelor and master’s degree on the University of Southern Mississippi. He won a bachelor’s degree in the sphere of coaching and administration/history of sport and his master’s degree in the sphere of sport management.

(Tagstransate) Morgan State Universiry

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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