The partnership of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown hasn’t been perfect. But it’s been almost as fruitful as any this side of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson that the NBA has seen in the last 15 seasons.
On Monday night at TD Garden, it culminated with the duo’s first championship after defeating the Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the 2024 NBA Finals.
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They have been All-Stars. They have both made All-NBA teams. Tatum has been considered in multiple MVP races. And together, they have taken the Boston Celtics to the top of the Eastern Conference almost yearly. But with each season before this ending before the ultimate goal, the whispers became louder.
Should one be traded?
Is Brown worth the massive contract Boston is paying him?
When is Tatum going to shake his postseason woes?
Can Brown ever get to the basket off the dribble with his left hand?
With each titleless season, the questions became louder. But the Celtics didn’t dissolve the partnership and it’s been rewarded.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t several low moments. There was the 2022 NBA Finals when they lost to the Golden State Warriors and the brilliance of Curry. There was the 2023 Eastern Conference finals loss to the Miami Heat when they went down three games in the series only to come back and lose in Game 7.
Here’s a timeline through the years of Tatum and Brown and everything that’s led to this moment, Boston’s first championship since 2008, via stories by The Athletic.
- The ‘Jaylen and Jayson show’ began long before they were Celtics
- Celtics got an early start molding Jayson Tatum for their system
April 22, 2018: ‘Growing pains’ will pay off
As written by Jay King, Tatum clapped his hands in frustration, following a 104-102 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks with a chance to take control of a series. Tatum and Brown were magnificent in that game, particularly in the second half. They combined to score 55 points, making them the first duo under 22 years old to do so since Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
If nothing else, they showed they were capable of a superstar ceiling, and that they were capable of picking each other up. But this was one of the games where the Celtics veterans knew that this was trending toward being their team. Tatum and Brown were beginning to put their mark on the Boston roster, and the Celtics’ front office knew to build around them.
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On this night, Tatum and Brown proved they were the players would could bring Boston to a title.
“We need those guys to play well,” then-Boston forward Marcus Morris Sr. said. “And I think they understand that.”
June 2, 2020: How to build around Tatum and Brown
A little over four years ago, in a deep dive with John Hollinger, Jared Weiss wrote on how to craft the roster around the star duo.
Weiss wrote: The Celtics’ core roster-building strategy has been predicated around spreading the floor with playmakers. Is this the next evolution of offense and can it keep up with offenses surrounding one or two singular talents?
It says a lot that this was the first comment in the story because it speaks to how obvious the strategy should be and should have been. Brad Stevens left the Boston bench, went to the head of the front office and built an almost perfect team around Tatum and Brown. What you saw this season was a juggernaut capable of spreading the floor and finding spacing. They could switch and make life miserable defensively for opponents. They leaned in on 3-point shooting en mass and never overreacted when shots weren’t falling.
Because Tatum and Brown generated three-level offensive pressure, they became extremely difficult to deal with for opposing defenses. How do you send help? Who can you sag off? Boston’s offense forced you to pick your poison. There was no real way to stop it.
This story with Hollinger and Weiss proved to be prophetic, with Hollinger writing:
“I do think there are players who could better maximize the value of the other Boston perimeter guys, but they’re also good enough that they’re not available. In a pie-in-the-sky fantasy, it would be nice to have Kristaps Porziņģis sitting there spotting up on the weak side, but he’s not walking through that door. (Sorry).”
Only Porziņģis eventually did walk in with respect to Hollinger and Rick Pitino. And he unlocked so much of the Boston offense around Tatum and Brown.
- How Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum continue to rise
- Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown put last season behind them, hope to move forward toward expected success
- Five stats that underline Jaylen Brown’s dramatic improvement
- How Jayson Tatum is figuring out how to score at the rim
- Measuring Jayson Tatum’s success handling double-teams
May 27, 2020: Why Brown may be better than you think
Written by King and Seth Partnow, this was an important story because it highlighted why Boston needed to stay the course. Some of the discourse around Tatum and Brown has been that the Celtics needed to swap Brown out via trade for a better No. 2 for Tatum. This 2020 piece pushed back on that idea.
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Take this from Partnow on Brown’s ability to defend, and think about how he defended in this postseason and against the Mavericks in the finals.
“I’m glad you mentioned defensive versatility,” Partnow wrote. “Because I think Brown’s ability to battle a wide variety of matchups has been part of what enabled Tatum to expand his offensive game.
“According to NBA.com matchup data, the average scoring usage of Tatum’s matchups was right around league average, while Brown’s matchups were in the 81st percentile for scoring usage. Part of this defensive load has been Brown taking on the challenges of guarding bigger opponent scorers with some frequency.
“For example, Brown has matched up with Anthony Davis, Pascal Siakam, Bam Adebayo, Kristaps Porziņģis, Al Horford, Paul Millsap and Julius Randle much more than has Tatum. Brown’s ability to credibly joust with those bigger players allows Boston to play four and five out with regularity.”
Brown’s ability to be versatile on the defensive end gave Boston a defensive versatility this playoff that had almost no peer. It’s one of the biggest reasons the Celtics are champions.
Feb. 23, 2021: Brown, Tatum earn first All-Star nods together
As written by King, this was the first time the duo became All-Stars together. They have twice since accomplished the feat, but milestones are milestones, and this was a significant one for Brown and Tatum as a partnership. With every step you take, the ultimate goal becomes a little easier to see. Brown and Tatum being recognized for their talent and production at the same time allowed the organization to take another baby step toward a championship.
“I think they both certainly deserve it,” Stevens said at the time.
- How Jayson Tatum can learn from Jaylen Brown
- Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum are ready for their moment
- Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown are passing the ball in crunch time
- Jaylen Brown endorses partnership with Jayson Tatum after first career triple-double
- Ime Udoka’s task as Celtics coach will be maximizing Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown
- How Jayson Tatum can fix Celtics’ brief but destructive offensive collapses
- Next Celtics coach must get Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown to lead the way
- Celtics offseason preview: how to build around Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown
Dec. 12, 2022: Reflecting on finals heartache
Sam Amick and Weiss got the duo to open up about their finals loss to the Warriors for the first time since that series. The Warriors never went through that pain. Once they were truly ready to go as a group, they kind of got to a championship level almost instantly.
But Golden State inflicted a bunch of pain on the Celtics in 2022. Boston was probably the better overall team, but Curry was the best player in the series by such a wide margin that he tilted the series almost by himself. The Celtics had to learn from that collectively. Tatum had to learn from it individually because he wasn’t good enough in that series. Neither was Brown, who multiple times allowed himself to become frustrated by Golden State’s Draymond Green.
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Tatum and Brown were both so mature in this finals appearance, both mentally and physically, that it’s easy to see they both learned from the Golden State experience.
“We literally gave everything we had,” Tatum said. “And to come up short just killed everybody.”
“Definitely disappointed,” Brown told Weiss. “Being in a moment where it feels like victory is at your doorstep, being able to be crowned the champions, and you are starting to feel like that’s the direction that we’re headed in. Then that rug just gets pulled right beneath you.
“Everybody thought we were going to win, everybody was expecting us to win and we didn’t. So, that’s where the disappointment, the anger at first — and then afterward, it’s humbling, you work. It’s embarrassing, almost in a sense, and that’s where the growth comes from, right?
“Everybody sees you, the whole world is watching, and they just all saw you lose. The whole world saw us lose and (there’s) a lot of humility in that.”
- How Brown, Tatum had historic night, grew partnership
- Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum earn All-NBA honors
- Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum living what Paul Pierce could’ve had
July 25, 2023: Brown signs supermax
Weiss, King and Shams Charania broke down the huge contract signed by Brown, and why despite the money it was a move the Celtics had to make.
Boston was even sold a little short on this one because this came before the game-changing trade for Jrue Holiday, which turned the Celtics from favorites to historic. It was certainly thought with this contract that Boston’s options beyond this for improving the roster would be severely limited. And then, Stevens pulled the Holiday rabbit.
This story is a breakdown of the contract, why Boston’s brass doubled down on the partnership and how the Celtics could benefit. It also went through the risk involved, because there was certainly an ample amount of it at the time.
June 1, 2024: Mazzulla calls out Tatum vs. Brown narrative
“They’re two of the greatest teammates and players that you could have and it’s been an honor to coach both of them,” Mazzulla said. “It doesn’t mean they have to be the same. So it’s bulls—. I love both of them and they deserve better.”
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Mazzulla isn’t wrong.
Social media has over the years pitted the two against each other, and over the years Brown and Tatum have had their say in calling it out. Even in these finals, we have debated who would be the finals MVP, but perhaps that’s because that MVP race was more competitive than the NBA Finals itself. One of the biggest reasons that Boston has thrived as a team is that Tatum and Brown have thrived as a duo.
When one has struggled, the other has been great. They have both affected games on each side of the floor. This run hasn’t been about one or both of them. It’s been about the Boston Celtics, and Mazzulla emphatically states that in this story.
- Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown put team ahead of box score
- All-Star 2024 wrap-up
- Brown, Tatum team work cements win
- Jason Kidd calls Jaylen Brown, not Jayson Tatum, Celtics’ best player
- Jason Kidd’s challenge to “sacred” partnership fuels Game 3 win
- Jason Kidd insists ‘no mind games’ with Jaylen Brown praise
- Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum close to ring, but “job is not done.”
Get a copy of “Garden Party: Inside the Boston Celtics’ Run to the 2023-24 NBA Championship” The Athletic’s commemorative book about the Celtics’ 2023-24 season. Order a copy today for $39.95, plus shipping and tax. Books will ship August 2, 2024.
(Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)