The Boston Celtics defied the preseason predictions by climbing and staying in the upper echelons of the Eastern Conference. Despite leading this short-handed ragtag squad by being the literal definition of a ‘valuable player’ to the team, Jaylen Brown feels the opposite. His expectation is rock bottom because of what he perceives as a fundamental bias in the NBA’s most prestigious individual race. For Jaylen Brown the bar for MVP is always just a few inches higher than where he stands.

Speaking on The Cousins podcast with Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, Brown suggested that the goalposts for the MVP award are constantly shifting to exclude him. He’s seemingly resigned to a grim conclusion: he will likely never take home the Michael Jordan Trophy.

“It’ll be cool, it’ll be nice,” Brown told Carter about the idea of winning MVP. However, he’s reset his priorities. “But in terms of like winning MVP versus winning the championship, it’s a big gap for me.”

Brown emphasized his team-first mentality instead by saying, “I’d like to play for another championship, but it’ll be nice… but you know that’s not in my control. I feel like I fit the criteria for it. Especially what people were saying about me before the season, that I couldn’t do it or I wasn’t capable of being this or being that.”

The 2024 Finals MVP’s frustration stems from a perceived moving target in the voting narrative. “I’ve been able to kind of shoulder that and then also help lead my team to where we’re at now, but people constantly just move the bar,” he explained.

“Now we fast forward and I don’t have enough to fit the criteria. I probably never will (fit the criteria to be MVP), no matter what I do.”

Shortly after he recorded this podcast, Jaylen Brown got his second career ejection on Tuesday night against the Spurs. So his sentiment is not related to an ejection he didn’t know was coming in a few days. It was a commentary on a broader sentiment in the league.

Jaylen Brown’s own excellence came in the way of MVP potential

For most of the season, the MVP race was split between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s potential back-to-back win and Nikola Jokic’s fourth MVP campaign. Until Victor Wembanyama and Jaylen Brown made solid cases to upset the odd. But somehow the hype Wemby gets is not the same as JB.

Many analysts wrote the Celtics off following a season-ending Achilles injury to Jayson Tatum and the breakup of the 2024 championship squad. Brown was the pillar of the Celtics’ narrative shift. He defied those expectations, averaging a career-high 28.3 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game as of March 2026.

This perceived snub has caught the attention of the league’s elder statesmen. Following a Celtics victory over the Lakers in late February, LeBron James went on the record to call the race a “popularity contest.” James told reporters, “This whole MVP thing, I don’t understand why his name is not getting talked about as well… Nobody gave them a shot to start the season and he’s averaging just under 30? I have my own personal issues with [the award criteria].”

Shaquille O’Neal echoed these sentiments on Inside the NBA, using Brown as a prime example of how voting has shifted toward advanced analytics over raw impact and leading a winning team through adversity.

Proving their point is the perspective in the media, among the MVP voters, as the Celtics remained contenders. The narrative shifted from “Jaylen Brown is carrying them” to “the team is simply too deep,” effectively diluting his individual MVP case. It’s probably what spurred him to tell Vince, “I don’t have enough to fit the criteria.”

The consensus among these legends is that Brown is being punished for the Celtics’ collective competence, even as he serves as the primary engine driving their 38-20 record. Only Jaylen Brown himself has gotten over that. His singular goal is only the rewards at the end of the season.