Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics kept the receipts.
The Celtics won their 18th championship Monday night with a 106-88 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden, surpassing the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in NBA history.
It was a fitting end to a dominant season for Boston, which steamrolled to a league-best 64-18 regular-season record and entered the Finals with a 12-2 postseason record. But despite those incredible results, a surprising number of experts and fans picked the Mavs to beat the Celtics in this series.
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Shortly after proving those experts and fans wrong, Brown took a victory lap on his Instagram story, re-sharing a graphic that noted 89 percent of bets were on the Mavs to beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals.
Celtics reserve Oshae Brissett also chimed in to throw shade at several ESPN analysts -- including former Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem -- who predicted this series would go past five games.
If Haslem and Co. are looking for someone to blame for ending this series in five games, they can start with Brown, who earned the Bill Russell Trophy as NBA Finals MVP.
The 27-year-old averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game while playing terrific defense on Mavs stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Brown's transformation into one of the league's best two-way wings is a big reason why the Celtics are NBA champions.
The betting community apparently didn't give Brown and the Celtics their respect, but this team has cemented its legacy forever by raising Banner 18. And while he took a brief victory lap on social media, Brown sounds like he's fully unbothered by the critics at this stage in his career.
"The doubters, they may be quiet now, but they will be back," Brown said Monday night in his postgame press conference. "They will be back next year with something to say. I'll embrace that moment the same and get after it yet again."
