On Tuesday, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics officially got the new NBA season underway by becoming the first team to host media day, fresh off of their 2024 championship victory. Tatum has had a busy summer, signing the most lucrative contract in league history and winning gold at the Olympics with Team USA, and will hope to lead the Celtics to a second straight championship this season.
Although they had one of the most dominant postseason runs in recent NBA history last year, the Celtics still could not escape media scrutiny even after their Finals victory was secure, as many were hoping that Jaylen Brown’s NBA Finals MVP nod would cast a divide between him and Tatum, who is generally considered to be Boston’s best player.
One person who is not subscribing to that notion is none other than Tatum himself, via Jared Greenberg (per ClutchPoints on X, formerly Twitter).
“It just wasn’t my time… Steph Curry got 4 rings & he only has 1. Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird didn’t win Finals MVP every time… For me, I was happy for [Jaylen Brown]… I know that I’m gonna win Finals MVP one day,” said Tatum.
Tatum largely struggled throughout the first few games of the Finals before turning it on in Games 3 and 5, while Brown had a much more consistent series offensively and also did a solid job defending Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic throughout the series.
Who is the Celtics’ best player?
Perhaps the more important question is, does it really matter? Tatum and Brown showed that they are clearly good enough to co-anchor a championship team (especially when surrounded by an All-Star supporting cast, as they were last year and will be again this year).
On paper, Tatum is likely the player that most teams would choose to build their team around if given the choice between he and Brown due to his size and versatility.
However, there is something to be said about the shooting struggles that Tatum endured throughout last postseason and that continued over into the Olympics, resulting in his benching on more than one occasion from Team USA head coach Steve Kerr.
Still, the fact that the Celtics were able to cruise to a championship despite their best player building houses on a nightly basis from the three-point line should be a scary proposition for the rest of the league.
Boston is set to get its season underway in just under four weeks vs the New York Knicks.
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