BOSTON — Jaylen Brown said he has a saying in his family: “Energy lasts forever.”
Even when a close friend or family member dies, he said as long as they can keep up that person’s energy, they’ll still be around. And that’s part of what he took from Sunday’s event at the Boston Centers for Youth & Families, where he and other Celtics celebrated Terrence Clarke’s life.
“We truly believe that if we keep speaking his name and remembering him, that energy is still going to be around,” Brown said. “So Terrence is no longer here with us today, but as long as I’m here a piece of him lives with me and a piece of him lives in all of us. So I’m going to continue to celebrate him and his family for giving us Terrence, because he was a great kid, man, he really was.”
The Celtics and other organizations unveiled a special court dedicated to Clarke, who grew up playing at the Vine Street location. The design features a symbolic “TC5″ logo, along with his quote: “I want to be that guy for everyone in the city.”
Clarke played one season at Kentucky before he declared for the 2021 NBA Draft. He was involved in a fatal car accident that killed him three months before the draft. Clarke was 19.
The Celtics and the NBA honored Clarke’s legacy last season. Clarke had a relationship with multiple members of the C’s, whether it was Brown, Jayson Tatum, Boston president Brad Stevens and others.
The league made Clarke an honorary pick during the 2021 draft as his family members accepted the honor on his behalf.
Brown was joined by teammates like Marcus Smart and Aaron Nesmith during the event, along with the Clarke family. Brown said his mom and Terrence’s mom, Osmine, are good friends and they hang out often. He said “we’ll definitely be around” the Clarke family, including kicking it with Terrence’s younger brother, Gavin.
“It meant the world to me,” Brown said of the event. “Obviously, a lot of emotions for everybody. Some of the things that you might have been distracted by and then being able to celebrate him brings all those emotions back to the front. He’s not around, he’s not here, and things like that. It isn’t fair; that’s what sucks about it.”
Celtics’ potential
The Celtics were nearly back whole again Monday, only missing Josh Richardson out of their rotation players. It was a major positive sign as both Brown and Rob Williams (knee) made their returns from injury.
Boston coach Ime Udoka lauded the team’s depth and scoring prowess, all of which was on display in a blowout win over the Rockets. While the Celtics started slow to let the one-win Rockets hang around, they sprinted away during a decisive third quarter.
Those heroics were courtesy of Brown, who had a 10-0 run by himself to blow the game open. The 25-year-old guard said it was great being back with the team — especially in a winning effort as the Celtics have won eight of their last 11 games.
“I think we got the potential to come out and play against Brooklyn (Wednesday) and play well,” Brown said. “I don’t want to put too many expectations on the group. We’ve just got to come out and play basketball like we’ve been doing and take it one game at a time. I’m looking forward to the next one, looking forward to putting everything together, and I think our potential is day-to-day.”
Daunting stretch
The Celtics have been on the road often to start the season, but they got a temporary break as part of their current four-game home stand. But that won’t be the case after Wednesday’s game against the Nets: Boston has seven of eight games on the road.
That’s a brutal stretch for any team, but at least the Celtics are getting healthy at the right time. Five of those games come on a West Coast swing — all against playoff teams from last season. That’s a huge gut-check stretch coming up for a team looking to climb higher in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s kind of the time you start seeing, and this next one is going to tell us a lot ... this stretch here we’ll learn a lot more about our group,” Al Horford said. “But I do believe that this is a great opportunity and now we are getting healthy, so that’s a positive.”
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