The Boston Celtics have had the sweetest summer of any team in the NBA, but when looking back at the journey to the franchise’s record-setting 18th title, Jayson Tatum expressed one particular regret — involving teammate Jaylen Brown.
“I’ve always told him that maybe I could have done a better job of voicing my feelings in the public eye,” Tatum told Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. “He always knew that I wanted him here. I would always tell him like, ‘Man, I don’t get involved with any of those talks.’ I never went to (Celtics president of basketball operations) Brad (Stevens) or went to any player like, ‘Yo, I want this guy in, I want this guy out of here.’ I show up and I want to do my job and play basketball. And looking back on in those moments, I didn’t know how that could affect somebody, because I was never in that situation. I feel like maybe I could have done a better job of publicly saying, ‘No, we don’t want anybody, we want JB.’ I just was always like, ‘I want to stay out of it.'”
Brown’s battle for respect was more prolonged than Tatum’s. Whenever conversations about splitting the Tatum-Brown tandem showed up at TD Garden’s front doorstep, it always led off with speculating returns for Brown. Two years ago, Brown was thrown into the media storm of a trade rumor involving then-Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant — before the Celtics had repaired the potentially damaged relationship with Brown by making the 27-year-old the NBA’s all-time highest-paid player with a five-year, $286 million extension last summer. Even after the Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals and Brown was named series MVP — after being named MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals — USA Basketball didn’t recruit Brown for their star-studded 2024 Olympic team.
“I wasn’t surprised, but my reaction is that I was happy for (Derrick) White,” Brown told reporters on the Team USA snub, per NBC Sports Boston. “It’s dope to have so much of our guys on there. So I was happy for those guys but I wasn’t surprised.”
It’s no longer a discussion of how valuable Brown’s presence is to the Celtics. Last season, the three-time All-Star averaged 23 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and a team-leading 1.2 steals, playing in 70 games. When Boston hosted the Indiana Pacers to begin the conference finals, Brown drained a clutch game-tying 3-pointer to force overtime — which allowed the Celtics to take Game 1 before going on to sweep the Pacers. Brown’s maturity in welcoming and embracing newcomers Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday allowed the locker room to buy into head coach Joe Mazzulla’s selfless team identity — one in which everyone shines, and wins are the primary focus.
There are no signs of a spoiled friendship between Tatum and Brown. They’ve both been tasked to perform under the microscope of outsider scrutiny, earned their well-deserved supermax contracts, and have the opportunity to flip their first NBA championship into a multi-Banner dynasty — cementing their legacies in Celtics history.
