The scars from falling short in the NBA Finals are still visible with Boston Celtics superstars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Three months after succumbing to the Golden State Warriors, there's a pregnant pause as Brown recounts how the Celtics were minutes away from a 3-1 series lead, his own words swinging back at him like a stomach punch. Tatum endured a similar pause while reflecting on how hard it was just to get to the title round, and how much harder it might be to get back there.
The only benefit to watching the Larry O’Brien trophy slip through their grasp is that it might have further accelerated the maturation process for the Jays. Like most young stars, so much of the focus at the start of their NBA careers was on individual success.
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Now, entering Year 6 for Tatum and Year 7 for Brown, there is only one unified goal: A championship.
Sitting down together for a Media Day interview with NBC Sports Boston last month, Brown and Tatum expressed an appreciation for all that they’ve been through together and suggested they are fueled now by the potential of what they might accomplish together moving forward.
The Celtics’ improbable surge to the Finals validated the notion that Brown and Tatum can thrive together. And the duo kept receipts on all those that suggested otherwise. But for Tatum and Brown, the biggest unifying force now is a shared desire to deliver Banner 18.
There was a telling back and forth during our sitdown with the star tandem when they were asked how sweet it might be to get to the finish line of a championship together, especially considering all they’ve endured to this point.
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Brown: “[Pairing with Tatum has] indirectly and directly made me better because I wanted to continue to make jumps as he was continuing to make jumps. And that just ultimately drives you to greatness, right? So I think it’s been huge. If you ask me, now, as we're trying to win, and we're trying to build, I think just being on the same page is the most important thing. Because now, the more we work together, the harder it's gonna be to stop us. So that's something that we started to develop and work on in the last 12 to 18 months. I think that we still got a lot of room to grow in those areas. But that's the key to winning games. At the end of the day, individually, we can be whatever in this league, I believe that. But, me, I want to win. Do you want to win?"
Tatum: “Yeah.”
Brown: "He wants to win, too. So that's what it comes down to.”
Tatum: "I think, [Brown] being a year older than me, and kind of being the young guys going through this and always pushing each other and having somebody that is as competitive, as ambitious as me, at relatively the same age, has been helpful. And then kind of putting it all together — helping him out, helping me out, helping each other out so that we can be the best for the team. Individually, we can do it all. We can accomplish whatever we want to. But getting to that championship and losing was the worst feeling ever. And you realize that nothing else matters. All the individual stuff, I would trade all that in to win a championship. And I believe that we're gonna do it.”
Tatum said the last line with conviction. Despite all the calamity at the finish line of the offseason and the question marks that linger entering the new campaign, there is a firm belief inside the Auerbach Center that the Celtics can still accomplish all the loftiest of their goals.
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Tatum and Brown know it’s on them to help lead this team through any turbulence.
"I think tough times and uncomfortable situations bring people closer together,” said Tatum. “And, obviously, the guys are going to look to us for a lot of different things. And we just got to be that much more together and closer with everything going on. And I believe 1,000 percent that we will be.”
One thing that shouldn’t hover over the Celtics: the suggestion that Tatum and Brown can’t thrive together. There was a moment after Boston won Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals in Miami that Brown looked at Tatum during the celebration and noted, “They said we couldn’t play together.”
The duo earned validation with their playoff run and now the focus is simply on how they can take the final step together.
“For me, it was silly at the time, but I how things work, you just got to sit through the storm and whatnot,” said Brown. "I just always kept that in perspective, and also kept receipts because I remember who said what."
Added Tatum: "I didn't feel like it made sense at the time. Because we've been in the playoffs every year, got the conference finals three times, got to the championship. And like [Brown] said, you never forget who said what. We see everything.”