Getty Jaylen Brown and his grandfather Willie Brown
Jaylen Brown was born on October 24, 1996, and raised in Marietta, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. His parents are Mechalle and Marselles Brown and he has an older brother named Quenton. The Boston Celtics shooting guard now lives in Wellesley, Greater Boston.
Here’s what you need to know about Jaylen Brown’s family:
1. Jaylen Brown Was Born & Raised in Georgia & Grew Up With a Single Mother & an Older Brother
Brown was born and raised in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. His mother, Mechalle Brown, raised him and his older brother Quenton as a single mother. From a young age, the family’s focus was on activism and education.
He attended Wheeler High School and played for the basketball team as a small forward and quickly began impressing with his talent on the court. His mother told ESPN that his love for the sport started when he was 9 months old and saw a basketball roll by him on the living room floor of their home.
“I call him the old man,” his mother told The Boston Herald. “His focus started when he was very, very young. He was a very determined child. He carried a ball with him all the time. He started putting in those hours with practice really early. Homework was first, and then he’d go out in the yard and shoot.”
The focus on higher education was clear when it came to Brown’s choice of college. While he could have attended basketball powerhouses like Kentucky, Kansas, or North Carolina, he picked the University of California, Berkeley, and the Cal Bears. He told Andscape that he liked the academic appeal of the school and paid out of his own pocket for a visit there.
“Education is something that is very important to me and my family,” Brown told the publication. “Cal Berkeley is at the top of the list. When I visited there, the university fit me.”
Brown’s mother also taught her sons about the importance of activism. “Speak up for yourself,” she told them, according to ESPN, “and speak up for others who may not be able to speak up for themselves.” When he was at Wheeler High School, he became a member of Habitat for Humanity and started a recycling program at the school, 247Sports reported.
2. Jaylen Brown’s Mother Is Mechalle Brown, an Educator Who Put a Lot of Focus on Education & Activism
Brown is very close with his mother Mechalle Brown, and it’s clear from hearing the NBA star speaking that she had a big influence on his life and philanthropic work. His mother grew up in Muskegon, Michigan, according to the Detroit News, and is a professor who obtained a bachelor of science degree from Michigan State and an MBA from American InterContinental University, ESPN reported. She is currently listed in the faculty directory of Boston’s Cambridge College as an adjunct instructor.
While speaking with 247Sports, he said, “My mom always encouraged me to join a lot of extracurricular activities, keep me occupied, so maybe my mother’s the reason I was into a lot of that stuff, and a lot of that cultural capital I got from Wheeler High School, I give credit to my mother, because that’s where credit is due.”
In fact, she shared with The Ringer that she always told her son that it wasn’t enough to be just an athlete. “No matter how tall you are, and how well you play the game, basketball is what you do, it is not who you are,” she said she told him. “Who you are is measured by the mark you leave on the world. And to truly leave a mark on the world, you have to do the right things, and speak out against the wrong things. But in order to do that, you have to use your voice. After you use your voice you have to back it up with actions.”
His mother is also a part of Brown’s foundation, the 7uice Foundation, he shared at an event at the Massachusetts State House in 2020, NBC reported. “It was your lessons that allowed me to question inequality, inequality in education, and challenge and encourage the growth that we still have yet to do,” he said in one video dedicated to his mother.
3. Jaylen Brown’s Father Is a Former Heavyweight Boxer Named Marselles Brown
Brown’s father is Marselles Brown, who is also a successful athlete in his own right. Marselles Brown is 7’0″ and had a career as a champion heavyweight boxer. He was born in Hawaii and finished his career at 33-18-1, with 25 victories by knockout, according to BoxRec. He is the 2016 World Boxing Union (WBU) World Champion and the 2015 WBU C.A.M. Heavyweight Champion, Boxing247 reported.
At the time of Marselles Brown’s interview with Boxing247 in 2016, he was serving as a member of the Hawaii State Boxing Commission Board. The NBA star’s father said he was coming out of retirement to inspire his children to never give up on their goals. “My main motivation for coming out of retirement was to show my kids that I never gave up on my dreams,” he shared. “So I didn’t want them to give up on theirs. I am extremely proud of both my sons.”
He described Brown as “an extraordinary athlete and very smart.” He also shared some advice for his boys, telling them that the entertainment industry is “nasty” and encouraging them to “stay on course.”
4. Jaylen Brown Is Close With His Older Brother & Has Spoken About His Grandparents’ Influence
Happy Veterans Day from my grandpa
Brown’s family is important to the NBA star and many of his family members are involved in his brand 7uice. His cousin Malcolm Durr works as the creative director of Brown’s 7uice apparel line, Red Bull wrote, and his older brother Quenton Brown is the director of the 7uice Foundation, his Instagram profile shows.
While Brown pursued a basketball career, his older brother was more of a football player and played for the University of Central Florida, his LinkedIn shows. He studied business administration and management and also works at Playbooked as an athlete relations coordinator.
His grandparents were also instrumental figures in his life. He spent his summers in Michigan with his maternal grandmother, Diane Varnado, a former public school teacher and social worker, the New York Times wrote. He recalled one occasion when he and his brother had to write an essay to explain why they wanted an Xbox 360.
“‘If you want something, you’ve got to be able to explain why,’” Brown said she told them. Varnado died on February 18, 2023, her obituary states, and Brown changed his Instagram profile photo to a picture of his grandmother.
On his father’s side of the family, Brown’s grandfather Willie Brown had a profound impact on his life as he taught him chess. He learned to play against his grandfather and then became the captain of the chess team in high school. Once in college, he took a chess class and told Andscape that the game is “comparable to life.”
In fact, his mother told ESPN that she could tell that chess changed the way her son viewed life. She said he started to approach everything more methodically, as though he were planning many moves into the future and strategizing his next steps.
Brown’s grandfather was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2020 and the NBA star said he wasn’t going to enter the NBA bubble because of it. Willie Brown had moved into his grandson’s home and Brown told GQ, “The reason why I chose to leave, me and him made a deal. He had cancer and he wasn’t gonna fight. And I told him, ‘If you play, I’ll play.’” Brown shared in late 2020 that his grandfather was cancer-free, GQ reported.
5. The Entire Brown Family Put a Big Focus on Education When Jaylen Brown Was Growing Up & He Said It’s His ‘Identity’
If one thing is clear with the Brown family, it’s the importance of education. The Celtics star has discussed it on several occasions and said higher education has been the path for many of his family members. In fact, his mother Mechalle Brown told ESPN that education is “the family business.”
Several of Brown’s uncles and aunts have PhDs and other degrees and it was ingrained into him and his brother from a young age that they should focus on education, he told 247Sports. “It’s my identity,” he shared.
“My family has a strong background of education,” he continued. “They made it known that it was important for us to get our education, and how important education is and how important knowledge is. I take that very seriously, and that’s basically who I am. I feel like, just asserting myself on that side of my life, I’ll go farther than just basketball.”