Jaylen Brown spent the final days of his offseason in Abu Dhabi, getting ready to face his preseason opponent. The Boston Celtics star posted a picture from his visit to the Grand Mosque in the capital of the UAE on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Brown mentioned the name of the mosque and its location in the caption of his post.

“Grand Mosque Abu Dhabi,” Brown wrote.

The NBA champion is scheduled to play against the Denver Nuggets on Friday in the first matchup in the Celtics’ five-game preseason routine. Brown had the best season of his career with the Celtics on their road to the 2024 NBA championship. Not only did he win a ring, but he was also named the Finals MVP in the series against the Dallas Mavericks.

Brown averaged 23.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game in his historic run to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Going into the new season, Brown will have high expectations on his back. As a core member of a championship-winning team, there will be an even less margin for error.

However, for now, Brown can enjoy his stay in Abu Dhabi and just make sure to be ready to face the Nuggets.

Many NBA teams, including the reigning champion Boston Celtics, have started their training camps ahead of the upcoming season. On Friday, the 2024 Finals MVP shed some light on the intensity of Joe Mazzulla’s training camp ahead of the 2024-25 season.

“Training camp has been hard,” Brown said (via MassLive). “Training camp has been a lot of conditioning, a lot of defensive stuff, setting the tone on the defensive end, pushing ourselves. It’s been great. It is exactly what we needed. We did not ease into training camp by no means. Joe Mazzulla is a psycho in a good way.”

As per MassLive, the Celtics have a healthy roster in the training camp. Aside from big man Kristaps Porzingis, all of their players are available. The Celtics are scheduled to take on the Nuggets in the preseason game in Abu Dhabi. Brown also shared his opinion on playing in the Middle East for the first two preseason games.

“I spent a large portion of my summer in the Middle East, so a lot of friends and family will be attending at the game. It would be fun to go globalize the game and play on that side of the world, so I look forward to it, but also playing against the former champs, I’m sure it will be exciting to watch,” he added.