What Brown can do for you

Jaylen Brown strongly believes basketball is his calling.

All of his life, he's been playing the sport. And he's never stopped working to perfect his craft. Today, the versatile athlete who plays all five positions for Marietta (Ga.) Wheeler, stands at 6-foot-7, 200 pounds and is the nation's No. 2 recruit.

"I've been playing basketball for as long as I can remember," said Brown. "I think I played my first organized game when I was 4. And I was always involved in camps growing up, working on my technique."

Early on, Brown didn't possess the above-average size he now has. He grew up playing guard and excelled there. However, he would soon learn all positions over the years.

"As I got older I just kept growing," he said. "It felt like I was growing 2-3 inches a year and my size allowed me to play other positions."

At 13 and in the seventh grade, Brown was already dunking. By eighth grade, he stood 6-foot-3. And while the size kept coming, he maintained and improved upon his athleticism and coordination, which has allowed him to become one of the country's most versatile players.

While Brown is listed in the Rivals.com database as a small forward, he believes his skill set is best suited at either guard position and says all schools he's interested in see him the same way.

But he's willing to play wherever he's needed. Case in point: he's been manning the center position for Wheeler his senior season.

"It's kind of weird for me, but I think it makes our team faster and more athletic in my opinion," Brown said. "But I play everywhere."

Despite playing all five positions for Wheeler and being recruited to play guard by top colleges, Brown insists it doesn't matter to him which position he plays.

"I'm a basketball player," he said. "I don't really consider myself a certain position. I can play wherever I'm needed. I don't have a preference, but I see myself as more of a guard in college."

The game has always seemed to come naturally to Brown, perhaps because athleticism is in his genes. His father stood at 6-foot-11 and played junior college ball. His older brother, Quenton Brown, recently graduated from North Texas, where the 6-foot-4, 235-pounder played defensive end and tight end on the football team.

Jaylen credits his brother Quenton for helping him get to where he is today. The brothers' relationship growing up was similar to that of one of Jaylen's idols -- Michael Jordan -- and his brother. Growing up, the older Jordan was ruthless against Michael on the basketball court, never letting Michael win. When Michael grew older and caught up to his older brother physically, he began to win and then felt he could beat anyone.

There is a slight difference in the Browns' relationship, however, as Jaylen points out.

"He didn't necessarily beat me in basketball," Jaylen said with a laugh. "He just beat me up. Period. And I'd play football with him too and he'd always lay the hardest hits on me."

Brown characterized Quenton's treatment of him as "tough love" and said it's helped him tremendously.

"My brother made me mentally tough," he said.

It's a good thing too, because now the spotlight is on him. Brown is the leader of a Wheeler team ranked No. 10 in the USA Today Super 25 national rankings, he's a five-star recruit and just about every major college in the country is after him.

However, amid the heightened exposure, Brown is staying on top of his priorities. He boasts a 2.9 GPA. In addition, he takes his leadership role as a senior captain seriously. As for the recruiting calls, he simply deflects those to his mother.

"It's been hard to balance it all," Brown said. "I just try to do the best I can."

His best has been pretty good in the eyes of recruiting analysts, but Brown doesn't see the lofty expectations as added pressure.

"No, not at all," he said. "I got here by working hard and playing basketball, so that's what I'm going to continue to do."

Brown -- who models his game after Jordan, Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant -- said he doesn't have a favorite school at the moment. However, he has taken three official visits thus far to Kansas (Oct. 10), Kentucky (Oct. 17) and UCLA (Oct. 31). He said playing away from home isn't an obstacle as long as he feels a given program is the right fit.

"I'm looking to go where I feel most comfortable," Brown said. "It's somewhere I'm going to be for the next year to 2-3 years, so I want to feel comfortable."

Brown said he'll wait and see how his college freshman season goes before determining if he'll be a one-and-done. If the NBA has to wait, Brown is comfortable with that.

Life as a professional basketball player could come sooner than later, however. He has the desire and discipline to reach that level, longtime Wheeler coach Doug Lipscomb believes.

"He doesn't have a problem with work ethic, so that's not an issue," Lipscomb said. "He's a good teammate. He wants everyone to get better and he gets everyone involved. He's a very humble kid. I've seen his development since eighth grade and he's grown bigger, strong and faster and he's coachable. You always enjoy and relish the opportunity to coach a kid who listens, learns and gets better."

Lipscomb's coaching is another positive factor weighing on Brown's recruitment. In his 22nd season at Wheeler, Lipscomb has guided numerous players to D-I schools over the years, four of whom have gone on to the NBA. Those four are Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Jermareo Davidson, J.J. Hickson and DeQuan Jones.

Though Lipscomb believes it's unfair to compare his players to those four, rare exceptions, his guarded approach when asked where Brown fits in amongst them isn't lip service.

"He's in that group with those kids," Lipscomb said.

Click Here to view this Link.