Boston Celtics veteran forward Jaylen Brown may be worthy of the title, but at just 24 years old, the fact he’s being included by legends of the game in the NBA’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) race is an impressive feat indeed, even if perhaps a little premature.
While BetMGM and other oddsmakers have the Georgia native outside the top ten players for MVP in 2020-21 so far, iconic Los Angeles Lakers champion Earvin “Magic” Johnson has him right in the thick of it all as a top-five candidate. Currently in a three-way tie for the most field goals made (128) this season with Stephen Curry and Lebron James, the Celtic forward joins LeBron and Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant, and Nikola Jokić as Magic’s leaders for the coveted league award this season in a recent tweet.
LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokić and Jaylen Brown are the top five MVP candidates right now.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) January 21, 2021
In a COVID-19-related absence of Jayson Tatum, Brown has been the stabilizing rock for Boston so far this season, a reliable source of high-efficiency offense almost every game game of the 2020-21 campaign to date.
Flashing new handles, body control, timing and a lethal ability to force his defenders to pick their poison, boosting his scoring by just a few more points per game could conceivably seen the Cal-Berkeley product ascent to such heights in everyone’s assessments by season’s end.
