Look: NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics teammate Payton Pritchard play as high school foes
Jaylen Brown, Payton Pritchard and the rest of the Boston Celtics are on top of the world after winning the 2024 NBA championship.
Brown earned honors as NBA Finals MVP, while Pritchard hit the dagger of a half-court shot to end the first half in decisive Game 5.
Just 10 years ago, Brown and Pritchard found themselves playing on opposite sides of the court for high school teams on opposite coasts.
Brown's Wheeler Wildcats (Georgia) were ranked in the top 10 in the nation and considered the heavy favorites against Pritchard's West Linn Lions (Oregon) at the 2014 Les Schwab Invitational.
West Linn brushed off Brown's high-flying game thanks to Pritchard's playmaking and his future Oregon Ducks teammate Anthony Mathis' scoring.
Check out the video below (courtesy of Prime Time Sports), featuring some highlight-reel dunks by Brown, slick passes by Pritchard and one next-level rejection of the latter by the former.
West Linn won 70-62 at Liberty High School in Hillsboro, Oregon.
Monday's win over the Dallas Mavericks gave the Celtics their 18th NBA championship in franchise history.
Boston won 64 games in the regular season and romped through the playoffs, going 16–3, including going 8–1 in the final two rounds. The 80–21 combined record generated the second-highest winning percentage in team history and the best postseason mark of any Celtics title team.
"We had an excellent game plan in the Finals, and then all of the guys contributed," Brown told reporters after Game 5. "Like, for example, like Payton Pritchard, like unreal, right. Unreal. Like just comes in the game and drains one from halfcourt."
Brown mentioned no bitterness about losing to Pritchard in 2014.
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-- Mike Swanson | swanson@scorebooklive.com | @sblivesports
MIKE SWANSON, SBLIVE SPORTS
Mike Swanson is the Trending News Editor for SBLive Sports. He's been in journalism since 2003, having worked as a reporter, city editor, copy editor and high school sports editor in California, Connecticut and Oregon.