The Boston Celtics have taken a new direction in recent years, bolstered by the arrival and growth of several superstars. Among them is Jaylen Brown, who has already won a championship with the franchise and earned a Finals MVP. Over the course of his NBA career, he has faced a long list of elite players—but one, in his view, stood out as the most difficult to defend.
Surprisingly, Brown revealed that no opponent gave him more trouble than Marco Belinelli. During an appearance on PlaqueBoyMax’s Twitch stream, Brown explained why the veteran Italian guard was his toughest defensive assignment.
“Marco Belinelli, he used to light me up, bro,” Brown said. “He just used to never stop moving, and I used to have to chase him around. The system we had was to chase Marco Belinelli around all these different screens. He’s not even getting the ball, and he’s still moving back and forth. You never know when he’s about to take off full speed, start running, and catch the ball.”
Even Belinelli himself might have been surprised by Brown’s admission, but the reasoning is sound. Chasing a relentless off-ball mover through multiple screens all night can wear down even the best defenders, and fatigue eventually takes its toll.
Still, Belinelli never had a jaw-dropping stat line against Brown and the Celtics. His most productive outing against them came on November 6, 2017, when he scored 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting for the Atlanta Hawks in a narrow 110–107 loss to Boston.
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Belinelli remains one of the most accomplished players Italy has ever sent to the NBA, known for his perimeter shooting and versatile skill set as a two-guard. Born in Bologna in 1986, he began his professional career in Europe before making the leap to the NBA in 2007, when the Golden State Warriors selected him 18th overall in the draft. His arrival marked a milestone for Italian basketball, paving the way for other talents from his country to compete at the sport’s highest level.
Over the course of his NBA career, Belinelli played for multiple teams, including the Toronto Raptors, New Orleans Hornets, Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento Kings, Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, and Philadelphia 76ers. His greatest strength was always his long-range shooting, which made him a valuable floor-spacing weapon and an ideal fit for the pace-and-space era of the modern NBA.
The pinnacle of Belinelli’s career came in 2014 with the Spurs, when he became the first Italian player to win an NBA championship. That title was the result of San Antonio’s masterclass in team basketball, as they dismantled LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the Finals. That same year, Belinelli also claimed the Three-Point Contest crown during All-Star Weekend, cementing his status as one of the league’s premier shooters.
