Chris Mannix discusses his conversation with Jayson Tatum for the latest edition of Sports Illustrated.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown's relationship on and off the court has been scrutinized since they became Boston Celtics teammates in 2017.
Brown has gotten the brunt of the criticism over the last seven years. The 27-year-old was often the subject of trade rumors as pundits pondered trades to split up the Celtics' superstar duo, which fell just short of a championship a few times before finally bringing home Banner 18 last month.
In a recent sitdown with Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, Tatum admitted he regrets not speaking up in support of Brown during those times.
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"I've always told him that maybe I could have done a better job of voicing my feelings in the public eye," Tatum told Mannix. "He always knew that I wanted him here. I would always tell him like, 'Man, I don't get involved with any of those talks.' I never went to Brad (Stevens) or went to any player like, 'Yo, I want this guy in, I want this guy out of here.' I show up, and I want to do my job and play basketball.
"And looking back on in those moments, I didn't know how that could affect somebody because I was never in that situation. I feel like, maybe, I could have done a better job of publicly saying, 'No, we don't want anybody, we want JB.' I just was always like, 'I want to stay out of it.'"
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Tatum and Brown's relationship has continued to be unfairly scrutinized despite their successful postseason run. After Brown was named Eastern Conference MVP, ESPN's "Get Up!" spent an entire segement questioning whether Tatum was happy for his teammate. When Brown wasn't named to Team USA's 2024 Paris Olympics roster, Tatum looked uncomfortable answering questions about his omission.
Mannix joined Thursday's Early Edition to share more insight on his sitdown with Tatum and what he took away from the conversation.
"(Tatum) always told (Brown) privately, 'I've got your back,'" Mannix said. "People around him have always said to me, 'Look, Jayson has no problem with Jaylen Brown. He wants to play with Jaylen Brown. He believes they can win with Jaylen Brown.' But I think sometimes these stories got some legs because we didn't hear a lot from Jayson Tatum. He never criticized Jaylen Brown. He maybe wasn't as vocal as he could have been.
"These are not two guys that are very often gonna be photographed at Dave & Buster's hanging out together. They're different people. They've always been different people. But that doesn't mean that they can't coexist as teammates and they can't thrive in that relationship because we have seen them thrive in that relationship. And I think this year for Jaylen Brown where he got his money, he's going to make over $300 million when his new contract kicks in, that's a big bag. And he got his accolades.
"And I think Tatum, one thing we talked about was that he was happy that Jaylen Brown got the conference finals MVP because he felt over the years Jaylen Brown kind of got the short end of the stick. He was often overlooked in the shadow of the accomplishments that Jayson Tatum has had. Now, he's getting that recognition. The first guy I think to be happy for him was Jayson Tatum."
As Mannix mentions, Brown no longer has anything to prove with a supermax contract, three All-Star nods, the conference finals MVP award and an NBA Finals MVP on his résumé. Still, there's little doubt his All-NBA, All-Defense, and Team USA snubs will put a chip on his shoulder for the 2024-25 campaign.
That extra motivation could work in the Celtics' favor as they look to become the first NBA team to repeat as champs since the Golden State Warriors (2017-18). They'll run it back with almost the same exact group that defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 Finals.
