Celtics forward Jaylen Brown aims to keep Terrence Clarke's memory alive

For Jaylen Brown, Sunday afternoon involved heading to a basketball court. Not an out-of-the-ordinary circumstance for the Boston Celtics star, but this time it was different.

Brown was a part of a special ceremony as the gym at the Vine Street Community Center in Roxbury was named after the late Terrence Clarke, a Boston native with who Brown had a close relationship.

Clarke cultivated his basketball craft as a youngster at that gym. It was also the backdrop when he announced his decision to commit to the University of Kentucky in September of 2019. Clarke tragically died in a car crash in April at the age of 19, just a month after the former Brewster Academy standout had declared for the NBA Draft following his freshman season with the Wildcats.

"It meant the world to me," said Brown, following Boston's 108-90 win over the Houston Rockets on Monday night. "Obviously a lot of emotions for everybody. Some of the things you might have been distracted by and then being able to celebrate him kind of brings all those emotions back to the front. He's not around, he's not here and things like that. And it isn't fair and that's what sucks about it."

Brown hopes that the unveiling of the Terrence Clarke Memorial Gym will help Clarke's legacy live on.

"We have a saying that we say in our family is, 'Energy lasts forever.' We truly believe that," Brown said. "If we keep speaking his name and remembering him, we think that energy is still going to be around. Terrence is no longer here with us today, but as long as I'm here, a piece of him lives with me. A piece of him lives in all of us.

"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."

Brown, who is one of the more socially active players in the NBA and at forefront of the Celtics as an advocate for social justice, also expressed his feelings when it came to the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in the shooting deaths of two men and the wounding of another during the riots in Kenosha, Wis.

Brown's sentiments were also related to another current high-profile trial involving three men being charged with the murder of African-American Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed while jogging in Glynn County, Ga. in 2020.

"I think my reaction is the same reaction I've had over and over and over again," Brown said. "Senseless violence happens, of course, but when it comes to a system not being able to protect people that are taxpayers and people that deserve to be protected, at some point it gets tired.

"We keep hearing the same words being used, 'Reform. We need to reform.' But actually, I'm tired of hearing the word reform. Reform doesn't work, in my opinion. If I reform my garage, I might change something. I reform my house, I might change some stuff around, but it's still the same house.

"The foundation of this country was built on systemic inequality, racism, etc., and until we get to the root of things we're going to keep having these same instances and we're going to keep having these same reactions. Hopefully, we're surprised when this Ahmaud Arbery trial goes on, but we'll see how that goes."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Celtics' Jaylen Brown remembers Boston native Terrance Clarke