EXCLUSIVE: NBA Star Jaylen Brown on Why Egypt is a Home Away From Home

Away from the bright lights of the NBA, Jaylen Brown is thinking about what it means to build something that lasts.

For nearly a decade, Brown has been building his own legacy on the basketball court. Having been the third overall pick in the 2016 draft, he has since become a five-time All-Star, an NBA champion and the 2024 Finals MVP. Away from the court, however, Brown has developed an unexpected connection with Egypt – a country he has now visited three times. His latest visit, during which he filmed a docuseries capturing his experience, offers a glimpse into what keeps drawing him back.

Brown's relationship with Egypt has grown with each visit. A friendship forged with an Egyptian friend met in the US allowed him to see a more personal side of the country, one that has kept him coming back. He describes Egypt to SceneSports as having its own “heartbeat” or “frequency” – something that gives the country a rhythm and character all its own.

But the Pyramids have left the strongest impression on him. The appreciation for Egypt’s most iconic landmarks goes beyond a fascination with their scale and has nothing to do with ancient aliens. What fascinates Brown is the intention behind them – the precision, attention to detail and collective effort required to create something so vast, with the knowledge that it would endure for thousands of years.

“I think the people that worked on the Pyramids, that built the foundation, they knew that this would be something that would last forever,” Brown says.

That idea strikes a chord with a player who has spent nearly a decade competing at the highest levels of his sport. Brown entered the NBA as a highly touted prospect and developed into one of its leading two-way players, with the accolades to show for it. But looking at the Pyramids has him thinking beyond the immediate rewards of a career. For Brown, the Pyramids are less a monument to the past and more a reminder of how to approach the present and future – with enough care and purpose that the work can outlast the moment in which it was created.

That thinking extends beyond basketball.

Through the 7uice Foundation and Bridge Project which he founded, Brown has made community building a central part of his work away from the court. The foundation focuses on expanding opportunities for young people through areas including education, entrepreneurship, technology, health and leadership.

That ambition is to take the idea of success beyond himself and his immediate environment.

“It's one thing to be able to take care of yourself and take care of your family,” he explained to SceneSports. “But to be able to expand that to your community and even a global community, to be able to help people who struggle from the same things all over the world.”

It is a natural extension of the way he now talks about his own life. Championships, All-Star selections and individual awards can define him as a player, but Brown has become increasingly interested in what those achievements allow him to do for other people. That’s what has made Egypt such a fitting setting for this particular chapter of his story, with few places making the idea of permanence as tangible as the country’s history and heritage.

The basketball career is already there, but the wider work is still taking shape – a process of exploration, intention and finding out just how far that platform can reach.

In Egypt, he’s found a reminder that the most meaningful things aren’t necessarily the ones that make the most noise in the moment.

“It's just a great reminder to the world that there's more,” Brown says.