They were told that they couldn’t play together, one should be traded and that they weren’t capable of winning an NBA Championship together.
But on Monday night, Celtics All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown silenced their detractors by beating the Dallas Mavericks 4 games to 1 and winning the duo’s first NBA championship.
The win gave Boston its 18th title, breaking the tie with the Lakers for most titles in league history. Most importantly, it proved that the young stars learned how to win.
And they learned by losing.
Brown joined the Celtics first after being drafted by the team out of UC Berkley with the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. A year later, Tatum joined the team after also being selected with the third overall selection after a single year at Duke.
Neither player paid immediate dividends in their rookie seasons, but after two seasons, they both began to ascend the ladders of NBA stardom.
Tatum made the All-Star first in year three when he averaged 23.4 ppg, 7 rpg and 3 apg. Brown joined him on the team a year later in his fifth season after averaging 24.7 ppg, 6 rpg and 3.4 apg. Since that time, Brown has made the team three of four years while Tatum made it five straight years, which includes being an All-NBA 1st teamer the last three seasons.
While they both experienced individual success, they couldn’t win a title, something they were consistently criticized for.
Over their first six years together, the pair made the Eastern Conference Finals four times and advanced to the NBA Finals once, where they lost to the Golden State Warriors in six games in 2022.
At the start of this season, everyone knew the Celtics were a great team, one made even better with the acquisition of Jrue Holiday. Yet despite the talent, the question still remained.
Could Tatum and Brown work together to elevate Boston to a championship?
Tatum always seemed to get it the worst. Critics panned him for not being a leader while others said that Brown was actually better than him and that he always disappeared in big games.
This year, Tatum learned how to win. He learned that it wasn’t about him or his stats. Instead, it was about understanding what he needed to do in order for the Celtics to win.
So if that meant deferring to Brown on some nights, no problem. If that meant letting Jrue dictate the offense, no problem. As long as the wins kept piling up, it was all good.
It was a lesson learned by his idol, Kobe Bryant, who realized that he had to change his way of thinking to win a title post-Shaq. It was the same lesson MJ learned that helped him finally beat his nemesis, the Detroit Pistons.
After losing the biggest games, the best players learn how to win. They remember the feeling of defeat and do what’s necessary to never experience that pain and agony again.
