The Boston Celtics have had the sweetest summer time of any crew within the NBA, however when wanting again on the journey to the franchise’s record-setting 18th title, Jayson Tatum expressed one explicit remorse — involving teammate Jaylen Brown.
“I’ve all the time advised him that possibly I might have completed a greater job of voicing my emotions within the public eye,” Tatum advised Chris Mannix of Sports activities Illustrated. “He all the time knew that I wished him right here. I might all the time inform him like, ‘Man, I don’t get entangled with any of these talks.’ I by no means went to (Celtics president of basketball operations) Brad (Stevens) or went to any participant like, ‘Yo, I would like this man in, I would like this man out of right here.’ I present up and I need to do my job and play basketball. And searching again on in these moments, I didn’t understand how that might have an effect on any person, as a result of I used to be by no means in that scenario. I really feel like possibly I might have completed a greater job of publicly saying, ‘No, we don’t need anyone, we would like JB.’ I simply was all the time like, ‘I need to keep out of it.’”
Brown’s battle for respect was extra extended than Tatum’s. Every time conversations about splitting the Tatum-Brown tandem confirmed up at TD Backyard’s entrance doorstep, it all the time led off with speculating returns for Brown. Two years in the past, Brown was thrown into the media storm of a commerce rumor involving then-Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant — earlier than the Celtics had repaired the doubtless broken relationship with Brown by making the 27-year-old the NBA’s all-time highest-paid participant with a five-year, $286 million extension final summer time. Even after the Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks within the NBA Finals and Brown was named sequence MVP — after being named MVP of the Jap Convention Finals — USA Basketball didn’t recruit Brown for his or her star-studded 2024 Olympic crew.
“I wasn’t stunned, however my response is that I used to be completely happy for (Derrick) White,” Brown advised reporters on the Staff USA snub, per NBC Sports activities Boston. “It’s dope to have a lot of our guys on there. So I used to be completely happy for these guys however I wasn’t stunned.”
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It’s not a dialogue of how beneficial Brown’s presence is to the Celtics. Final season, the three-time All-Star averaged 23 factors, 5.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and a team-leading 1.2 steals, enjoying in 70 video games. When Boston hosted the Indiana Pacers to start the convention finals, Brown drained a clutch game-tying 3-pointer to drive additional time — which allowed the Celtics to take Recreation 1 earlier than happening to brush the Pacers. Brown’s maturity in welcoming and embracing newcomers Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Vacation allowed the locker room to purchase into head coach Joe Mazzulla’s selfless crew identification — one by which everybody shines, and wins are the first focus.
There are not any indicators of a spoiled friendship between Tatum and Brown. They’ve each been tasked to carry out beneath the microscope of outsider scrutiny, earned their well-deserved supermax contracts, and have the chance to flip their first NBA championship right into a multi-Banner dynasty — cementing their legacies in Celtics historical past.
