Report particulars Tatum’s selfless gesture for Brown in All-Star Sport initially appeared on NBC Sports activities Boston
It is one factor for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to say the correct issues about their relationship. It is one other to place these phrases into motion.
The 2024 NBA All-Star Sport supplied an instance of Tatum and Brown’s bond, and the way a lot the Boston Celtics’ stars need to see one another succeed. On the most recent episode of The Ringer’s Invoice Simmons Podcast, Simmons relayed an anecdote he heard from an NBA govt about Tatum placing his personal ambitions to the facet in order that his Celtics teammate might make a run on the sport’s MVP award.
“On the All-Star Sport, when everybody was going for MVP … the East was up 20, so (Damian Lillard) was in there and (Tyrese) Haliburton and Jaylen Brown had been going for it,” Simmons stated. “And Tatum went to (East head coach) Doc Rivers and stated, ‘Give Jaylen my minutes. I need to see him win MVP.'”
Rivers obliged, and Brown used the additional minutes to complete with 36 factors on 15 of 23 capturing with six 3-pointers over 22 minutes performed, essentially the most amongst all East reserves.
Whereas Lillard completed with 39 factors to edge Brown and Haliburton for MVP, it is nonetheless encouraging to see Tatum — who gained All-Star Sport MVP in 2023 — set his Celtics teammate up for fulfillment on the expense of his personal.
Tatum and Brown have come alongside manner over their six-plus seasons collectively in Boston. The All-Stars aren’t essentially inseparable buddies — that label could apply to Brown and new teammate Kristaps Porzingis — however have developed a robust relationship constructed on mutual respect and a real need to see one another succeed.
“We want one another,” Tatum stated of Brown again in October. “We will have sufficient particular person success, making all-NBA and All-Stars and getting contracts, however finally we all know what will matter: if we are able to grasp a championship banner. It’s an extended season, playoffs is lengthy, and we perceive I gained’t be capable of win a championship with out him and he gained’t be capable of do it with out me.
“Figuring out we have now to get the most effective out of one another, pushing one another, and be capable of excel individually collectively. Now we have to be the most effective model of ourselves collectively, for us and for the staff, and all people understands that.”
Tatum and Brown taking the reins as leaders in Boston is an enormous motive why the Celtics personal the NBA’s finest report by a large margin, and their relationship will play a key position within the staff’s push for Banner 18.
