The morning of the Boston Celtics‘ matchup against the Miami Heat on January 31, Jaylen Brown tweeted out a cryptic message.
The energy is about to shift
“The energy is about to shift,” he wrote. No one knew what exactly Brown was getting at, but many believed the energy he spoke of was regarding the Celtics themselves. Before that game, which they won 122-92, the Celtics were 26-25 on the season. The prevailing theory was that Brown had proclaimed the Celtics would change their fortunes.
After Brown tweeted this, Boston went on a nine-game winning streak and won 25 of their last 31 games. Many believed it was Brown’s tweet that ignited the sudden turnaround. The phrase has become so widespread that Brown currently sells shirts with those exact words front and center.
In a May 4 interview with Malika Andrews of ESPN, Brown reflected on why he sent out that tweet in the first place. Brown even used an astronomical term when explaining the tweet.
“Have you ever been in a time where things don’t seem to be going right?” Brown asked. “I just felt like this for everybody. Things were just about to shift. There are certain times of the year, it was actually a retrograde, which means that planets were spinning in the opposite direction. … I know at that moment that the energy was about to change so I tweeted it out and we went on a winning streak.”
Brown Believes Getting Healthy Triggered Boston’s Turnaround
Whenever a team turns around its fortunes like the Celtics did this season, many try to figure out how. Maybe the team acquired better players or had an easier schedule. Brown believes that simply getting guys back from injuries — including him — helped the team figure out what they were as a team.
“I think that we got healthy,” Brown said. “I think that was the key thing. We had some injuries. I missed about 15 games earlier in the year, and that affected us but … new teammates, a new front office, a new coaching staff, so we just had to get our feet set. Once we did, we see the results so I credit it to that.”
The Celtics were affected both by injuries and by COVID-19 earlier in the year, but once they got past all that they started playing more like a playoff team. Acquiring Derrick White and re-acquiring Daniel Theis at the trade deadline helped, but having the full team available for the stretch run was crucial.
Brown Never Lost Faith in the Team During the Hard Times
Struggling to stay above .500 while coming off a first-round exit last season would not be fun for anyone. Even if they’re yesterday’s news, the Celtics’ issues at the beginning of the season caused many to doubt if they would ever put it together. Brown was not among the skeptics.
Brown’s prophetic tweet signified that even through the hard times, he still believed in what the Celtics were capable of. He said as much when asked about how much harder it was for Boston before their turnaround.
“I never lost faith, I’ll say that,” Brown said. “During the middle of … all the turmoil, all the critique, you can go back and pull the receipts, I always said that things were going to change. Things are going to pick up. The energy of how we felt about each other and about the group was always high. It was always consistent. It was always positive. So I knew it was only a matter of time. We weren’t getting blown out. We were losing games by close margins so we just had to figure out how to win games and how to be healthy. … Once we did, we knew we would go on a little bit of a run.”
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Celtics Star Jaylen Brown Reflects on Cryptic Tweet