The first time I saw Jaylen Brown was at the beginning of 2012, when he was in the latter half of his freshman year at Wheeler (GA) High School.

The first time was in January 2012 at the Hilton Invitational at Norcross (GA) High School. His Wheeler team was playing Charlotte (NC) Olympic, which some people thought was the best team in the nation and featured six future Division I players including Al Freeman (Baylor) and Josh Smith (Clemson).

Wheeler had a young team that showcased three highly touted freshmen in Brown, KeJuan Johnson, and Daniel Giddens and was also led by Charles Mitchell and Elijah Staley.

At a lengthy 6-foot-4, Brown was very intriguing as a youngster, showing flashes of big time potential and athleticism, though he and his Wheeler squad took their lumps in a lopsided loss that day. A little more than a month later I watched him again in a home playoff game against North Gwinnett (GA), where he made a play I will never forget, coming down the lane and punching a huge dunk with a couple defenders in the way.

That cemented him as a top dog in my mind, and he never looked back from there.