Wheeler’s Jaylen Brown hears from many college suitors

“I don’t know how I picked it up. I don’t know where I got it from. I don’t know who put the ball in my hand, but ever since I’ve gotten it, I never put it down,” Brown said.

The 17-year-old senior at Wheeler High School has turned his lifelong passion into a budding basketball career. So far this summer he’s competed in Italy at Adidas Eurocamp, in Colorado with USA Basketball’s U18 national team and in Washington at the Kevin Durant Skills Academy, to name a few.

Traveling has become more of the norm than being at his home in Marietta, but that’s fine by Brown because travel offers opportunity to indulge in his second love: shopping.

In Venice, Italy, Brown shopped European favorite Zara, but he had some trouble with the sizes. Even with the size discrepancy, Brown said he did some damage.

“The stores were weird. They were my style, but everything was like a really tight fit,” Brown said. “I mean I like the slim fit, but they didn’t fit because the people there are smaller and a lot thinner, so the sizes were off.”

Brown has a busy schedule, and it's made even busier with recruiting. The five-star recruit is ranked eighth in the nation by ESPN and first in Georgia.

He currently has offers to play at Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Marquette, Maryland, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, South Florida, Tennessee, UCLA and Vanderbilt.

Brown has had in-home visits with coaches from UGA, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Florida, Kansas and UCLA. He plans to take an official visit to UCLA when on the West Coast next month for an Adidas tournament.

“You hear a lot of the same stuff. It’s refreshing to hear a coach talk about different stuff,” Brown said. “Because some coaches … flip the script, but the majority of the time I do hear the same things over and over again.”

Recently Brown was coached by Florida coach Billy Donovan in Colorado Springs, as a member of the 2014 USA Basketball men’s under-18 national team.

“It’s definitely an advantage for him and me. We get to both interact with each other before a little bit more than all the other college coaches do,” Brown said. “So it’s definitely an experience that helped me and gave me a chance to evaluate him.”

With nearly 20 offers on the table, Brown has options and he’s in no hurry to get rid of them. Brown said he plans to narrow the pool to five top schools by the end of the summer. Brown’s first day of his senior year is set for Aug. 7. Brown expects that he won’t make his final decision until the late signing period, in April 2015.

The recent trend of star athletes, especially basketball players, transferring hasn’t lessened the current pressure on Brown to make a choice.

“It makes me question if they chose the right school from the get-go. It’s a really big decision when you come to decide on a college and there’s a lot of time and effort that you put into making that decision so hopefully I make the right decision,” Brown said. “It shows, when people transfer, that maybe they didn’t choose the right school or maybe things weren’t working out the way they expected them to so they transfer.”

“If you end up somewhere else, it’s not the end of the road. If you choose the wrong school, god willing I don’t choose the wrong school, it’s not the end of the world.”

Brown said he’s open to the possibility of even leaving whichever school he ends up at early for the NBA draft, much to his mother’s dismay.

“I feel if the opportunity is given to me I feel like I would take that chance and take that risk,” Brown said. “But I had to stay in college for four years and get my degree that’s just as equal, it’s just as important.”

For now, Brown is focused on his senior season and staying in shape. The 6-foot-6 small forward has an unexpected routine that he believes gives him and edge on the court: hot yoga.

“I needed to get more flexible because I was not flexible at all, and then once I broke my ankle my sophomore year, I was having mobility problems,” Brown said. “I needed to be more fluid on the court, more agile on the court, so I started taking yoga. It’s really helped my athleticism, my core. I got stronger. My body fat lowered. That’s my biggest helper.”

Brown visits Bikram Yoga Marietta at least twice a week to sweat it out and stretch it out. Brown admits he’s not the typical yoga enthusiast.

“I stick out like a sore thumb,” Brown said. “The instructor is pretty cool. Because she knows I’m probably one of the least flexible people there, so she helps me out.”

Going head to head with his favorite professional player, Kevin Durant, at his camp has been his favorite part of the summer so far, Brown said.

“We were competing. I was trying to go at him. I was targeting him. And he knew it. … He targeted me,” Brown said. “We were going at each other, it was great. I would say I won and I think more people would agree that I won.”

In the heat of the in-game trash talking Durant told Brown: “I know we’re competing but just stay humble.”

“I wanted him to prove to me why he’s the MVP and he did,” Brown said.

Unlike most top recruits, Brown claims he's not very active on social media, but recently he's seemed to find some fame online—especially on Twitter. On July 5, Jamie Foxx tweeted at Brown. Foxx's tweet said: "Shoutout to Jaylen Brown @FCHWPO, hands down one of the best young ballers in the country, good luck young man."

With about 2,600 followers, Brown is by no means a Twitter king, but he does tweet almost daily — even during his travels. Brown's Twitter handle, @FCHWPO, is unique from most, and it's very meaningful to Brown. It's his life motto: faith, consistency and hard work pay off.

For Brown, the payoff has only begun.