How Celtics' Jaylen Brown ended Red Sox' Michael Chavis' high school basketball career

Share

THE SCENE: About six years ago, a basketball game between Wheeler and Sprayberry High Schools of Marietta, Georgia.

THE PLAY: On an alley-oop pass, future Boston Celtics swingman Jaylen Brown, 6-foot-6, of visiting Wheeler - a nationally recruited star - dunks on future Boston Red Sox infielder Michael Chavis, 5-11, a Sprayberry reserve. 

LIVE stream the Celtics all season and get the latest news and analysis on all of your teams from NBC Sports Boston by downloading the My Teams App.

THE AFTERMATH: The two rising stars have never met since, but Chavis recalled their first encounter on WEEI's Greg Hill Show: "I get pulled immediately and I didn’t play the rest of the season."

THE BACKGROUND: Here's the full story, as told by Chavis, now 24, via WEEI's Rob Bradford: "Basically, they ran their entire offense around Jaylen, obviously, and we practiced for a week preparing for this game and the big play they had was an alley-oop play around him. And for some reason, I was the sixth man and I saw the alley-oop go up and for some reason, I was like, ‘That’s definitely an airball. That is not an alley-oop.’ So I decided at 5-foot-11 and not built for the game I was going to jump for it and right as I was four inches from the ball I felt this large presence hitting me in the face and dunking on me and I’m laying face up on the ground looking up at Jaylen Brown standing above me. My home team stadium is cheering for him while I’m on the ground. I get pulled immediately and I didn’t play the rest of the season. So shout out to Jaylen."

Brown, now 23, is in his fourth season with the Celtics after being drafted with the No. 3 overall pick in 2016 following a year at Cal-Berkeley. He's come into his own this season, averaging 20.2 points and 6.4 rebounds a game.

Chavis was drafted by the Red Sox out of Sprayberry with the 26th overall pick in 2014. His solid rookie season (.254, 18 homers,  58 RBI, .766 OPS in 95 games) was cut short by an oblique injury in September, but he's looking to build on that as the likely starting second baseman in 2020.

Perhaps they can get reacquainted and maybe recreate their first meeting when the Red Sox return from spring training. 

Don't miss NBC Sports Boston's coverage of Celtics-Timberwolves in the first game after the All-Star break, which begins Friday at 7 p.m. with Celtics Pregame Live. followed by tip-off at 8 p.m. You can also stream on the MyTeams App.

Contact Us