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When the Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks to win the 2024 NBA title, Jaylen Brown won Finals MVP. Sometimes, winning an award like that can breed jealousy from a fellow star teammate. Such is not the case with Jayson Tatum.
In an exclusive interview with Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, Tatum explained why Brown winning the award “made (Tatum) very happy.”
“I feel like he has gotten a short end of the stick, whether it’s All-Star selections or All-NBA,” Tatum says. “I feel like he, in a sense, made up for some of those shortcomings that people didn’t vote him for. I was happy that he got it,” Tatum told Mannix in a July 25 story.
After making the All-NBA Second Team in 2023, Brown missed out on making a team again in 2024. However, he made his third NBA All-Star team in 2024. On top of winning Finals MVP, he won Conference Finals MVP against the Indiana Pacers.
Brown was the first Celtic to win Finals MVP since Paul Pierce won it when they beat the Los Angeles Lakers in 2008.
Jayson Tatum Always Wanted Jaylen Brown in Boston
Tatum and Brown have played together since 2017, and both have been in trade rumors in their time together. While talking with Mannix, Tatum talked about how he always wanted to play with Brown in Boston.
“(Brown) 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 [Celtics president of basketball operations] Brad [Stevens] or went to any player like, ‘Yo, I want this guy in, I want this guy out of here.’”
Tatum admitted that he should have been more vocal in public about his desire to stay teammates with Brown.
“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.’”
Tatum wanted to stay away from any public drama. However, he also never said on public record that he wanted the Celtics to get rid of Brown. Because they toughed it out, they now are champions together.
Jayson Tatum Says He & Brown Have Figured it Out
Though they experienced success together early on, Tatum said that he and Brown have learned how to work together.
“We’ve figured out that we need each other,” Tatum told Mannix. “We have learned how to coexist. And we know we need to be the best version of ourselves in order for all of this to work. We weren’t necessarily the best playmakers early in our careers, but we developed into guys that really bleed the game. We want to be a great example of guys that play on both ends as a floor and guys who are the best teammates that we can be.”
It’s been a long journey for both Tatum and Brown to get to where they are. They have accomplished a lot since they joined forces, and they are in line to accomplish more going forward.
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