BOSTON — Jaylen Brown barely had time to cradle his newly earned NBA Finals MVP trophy when he turned to Jayson Tatum and said:
“We did this together.”
If the Celtics’ three 1980s championships were the Larry Bird Big Three Era and the 2008 title was the New Big Three, the newest Larry O’Brien Trophy was the top of the mountain climbed by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
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It’s hard to make history with the Boston Celtics. The 17 banners hanging at TD Garden represent seemingly everything imaginable that has already been accomplished, every hurdle cleared and every goal realized. Every new Celtic pulls on a uniform with one of the few unretired numbers hoping just to live up to the history that they live inside.
But as the final seconds ticked off the clock in Monday’s title-clinching win over the Dallas Mavericks, the 2023-24 Boston players stamped their mark on the sport’s most successful franchise. Their 16-3 postseason record is the best in franchise history as they led the Celtics to New England’s 13th championship in this century.
The victory was the top of a pyramid. It was built upon a great season and built upon several years of growth with two evolving superstars. Past mistakes and painful losses were not just prologue, but the foundation for what they accomplished this year.
“It took being on the other side of this and losing in the finals and being at literally the lowest point in a basketball career that you could be to the following year, thinking that was going to be the time, and come up short again,” Tatum said. “Coming up short and having failures makes this moment that much better. Because you know what it feels like to lose. You know what it feels like to be on the other side of this and be in the locker room and hearing the other team celebrating, hearing them celebrate on your home floor. That was devastating.”
Brown echoed his partner’s sentiment.
“All of our adversity has made us stronger, made us tougher. 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,” Brown said. “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.”
Reaching that peak in any year would have been fulfilling, but doing it this year had added significance. It meant that legendary TV announcer Mike Gorman would go out with a championship. And it meant 38-year-old Al Horford would have a championship in a career that’s winding down. Horford signed with the Celtics at a time when prime free agents rarely chose Boston. He modeled professionalism, sacrifice and work ethic for younger teammates, who’ll reflect his influence long after Horford hangs up his high tops.
Horford is one of many people who helped lay the early bricks Monday’s celebration was built upon. That list includes many who’ve moved on. Danny Ainge, Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas, Ime Udoka and maybe even Kyrie Irving all deserve some credit for planting and watering the seeds in the early days.
“You can’t lose sight of the people that came before us,” Joe Mazzulla said. “I want to make sure every person that’s worked for the Celtics, that’s played for the Celtics that didn’t win, knows that their work and what they have done has not gone unnoticed.
“When you work for this organization and you don’t win the work that people put in just gets brushed over or gets ignored. And when I first got here, Brad’s coaching staff, the foundation that they built with these guys when they were young is one of the reasons why we’re here today. … Just because we won this doesn’t mean what the people have done before us isn’t just as important.”
Mazzulla is right, but this group figured out how to harness it, how to put it together, led by Tatum and Brown.
“They get scrutinized so much and they get so much pressure put on them for not winning or even making it to the Finals and not getting over that hump,” Jrue Holiday said. “But I feel like people finally see the relationship that they have. From the beginning, they have always done it together. They have never compared against each other. They have always been joyful and happy for each other. …Hopefully, it’s a burden off of their shoulders. But another burden is doing it again.”
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
