BOSTON — Just last season, when Jaylen Brown inked his supermax contract with the Celtics, there were plenty of critics.
Sure, Brown was fresh off a career-best season. But against the Heat in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, “I failed,” he said back then. So out came the detractors, poking fun at the Celtics that they were never going to win a title.
But this is Brown. Every season he’s been in the league, he’s improved his game at a steady pace. C’s coach Joe Mazzulla called it a growth mindset, where Brown “yearns” to get better. So Brown, once again, worked on his craft. Last summer ate at him, he admitted, but all he could do was silently level his game up away from the spotlight.
Nobody’s criticizing now. Not after Brown earned both Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP to lead the Celtics to Banner 18. He praised his “partner in crime” in Jayson Tatum, making sure his teammate got plenty of credit. And Brown’s unwavering rise to Finals MVP — one that includes constant growth — should be commended.
Now, Brown is in the history books. He helped put the C’s over the top. Nobody can take those accolades away from him. There are no more jokes about his left hand or the lingering pain from last playoffs. All that’s left are a championship, a banner and the satisfaction of burying past demons.
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“All of our adversity has made us stronger, made us tougher,” Brown said. “All season you could see it. We started from the jump. We made all the sacrifices. We played both ends of the ball at a high level. We didn’t skip any steps. And this was the result.
“But all of those experiences led to here. All of the moments where we came up short, we felt like we let the city down, let ourselves down, all of that compiled is how we get to this moment. And it makes it feel even that much better that we had to go through all the journey, the heartbreak, the embarrassment, the loss, to get to the mountaintop.”
It was evident this season where Brown wanted to elevate his game to new heights: Defense. It’s why, when he wasn’t named All-NBA, he was more bothered by the lack of All-Defensive team votes instead. There’s a reason for that. All season, Brown often guarded the other team’s best player despite a loaded defensive roster. Brown showed off those defensive chops during the Finals, frustrating Mavs star Luka Doncic throughout the series.
Those who paid attention to Brown’s stellar season know how much he affected the game on a nightly basis. That takes hard work — the 27-year-old takes immense pride in his fitness level, grinding through a physical test every game. Brown won’t get outworked on the court as the sting from past playoff failures serves as a great motivator.
“He’s not afraid to face his weaknesses on the court,” Mazzulla said. “So when you have that type of mindset, you’re just going to be able to take on every situation that the game brings you. … That’s how you have to grow: is to become vulnerable and on the things that make you uncomfortable. And he does that.”
Brown and the Celtics finished what they set out to do. Experience is the best teacher, they’ve preached all season. So while the heartbreak left scars, they wouldn’t have reached the mountaintop without those years of deep playoff runs. The C’s have been criticized this very playoff run as the haters point out the lack of competition or the injury luck along the way.
But the history books are written by the victors. For the first time in 16 years, those are the Celtics. And they were led by their much-maligned core of Brown and Tatum. Critics will no longer wonder if they can win a title together — no, now the question is how much can they win together. For that, there’s a deep respect between the two bright Celtics stars.
“Just our growth together,” Brown said. “We’ve been through a lot. We’ve been playing together for seven years now. We’ve been through a lot, the losses, the expectations. The media have said all different types of things: We can’t play together, we are never going to win. We heard it all. But we just blocked it out, and we just kept going. I trusted him. He trusted me. And we did it together.”
