From the moment Jaylen Brown said “sport is a mechanism of control in America” back in 2018 he marked himself out as different.
The Boston Celtics guard made that comment, in an interview with the Guardian, when he was still making his way in the league, and about to visit London as part of the NBA's Global Games.
He went on to say “Trump has made it a lot more acceptable for racists to speak their minds.” Plenty of people inside the NBA before and since have spoken out about the current president of the USA, about race relations, and about police brutality.
But few have done so as intelligently and powerfully as Brown - and it was no surprise to many, including Celtics coach Brad Stevens, to see him taking a stand over George Floyd.