Criticized, doubted, and now champions. How two Celtics rewrote their story.

I met Jayson Tatum almost a decade ago when he was in high school. It feels like a lifetime ago, considering that he and his teammate Jaylen Brown led the Boston Celtics to their 18th championship Monday night. As the confetti rained down, I thought about some of the criticisms that had been heaped upon the dynamic duo’s heads during their careers.

They were too similar in playing style to be successful together. They were very good, but not great. They lacked the mettle that real champions needed.

Those negative commentaries, while occasionally warranted from a basketball perspective, never made sense upon further review. They never took into consideration the young mens’ character. 

When I was a fledgling photographer and met Mr. Tatum, I was more impressed by his kindness and demeanor than I was by his silky smooth game. And nothing about him ever wavered. I took pictures of him in consecutive summers at the Nike Peach Jam in North Augusta, South Carolina. When I tweeted pictures from both events, I added this header: “Some things never change.” 

That prophecy is still true today. Mr. Tatum became one of the best players in the National Basketball Association, and more importantly, became a role model by virtue of his relationships with his mother and son, Deuce. The story of how he and his mother overcame various financial challenges in St. Louis has become the stuff of legend, and the superstar’s heart for his son extends to various community projects. 

Boston’s champions

And then there is Mr. Brown. Almost a year ago, I wrote a piece about his callback to Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He wanted to use his newfound wealth after signing the biggest contract in NBA history to close the racial wealth gap. Mr. Brown was also one of the prominent NBA voices during the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 and backed the Milwaukee Bucks’ wildcat strike after Jacob Blake was shot in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Boston has built its title teams on the backs of indomitable men, which is why pundits who suggested that either Mr. Brown or Mr. Tatum should be traded after falling just short of a championship year after year never made sense. 

The suggestion was unwise even from a basketball perspective. Wing players with length, skill, and athleticism are at premium in today’s NBA. Why break up two of the best?

But the Celtics’ championship reputation made the idea more asinine. Bill Russell and Kevin Garnett immediately come to mind, not just because of their defensive intensity, but what they mean as men of high professional standards. Mr. Tatum and Mr. Brown, despite their occasional deficiencies, are cut from a similar cloth.

It gave me great joy to see those criticisms collapse on a June evening in Boston. 

“He was with me the whole way”

Mr. Tatum’s playoff difficulties dated back to a stunning second-round NCAA tournament loss to South Carolina during his freshman (and only) season at Duke. Mr. Brown’s large contract was criticized after last year’s playoff loss to the Heat, when Mr. Tatum was injured and Mr. Brown was unable to raise the level of his game to compensate. None of it mattered after both players put their stamp on a dominant series win over the Dallas Mavericks Monday night.

“It was a full team effort,” Mr. Brown said after he won the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award. “I share this with my brothers, and my partner in crime, Jayson Tatum. He was with me the whole way.” 

Mr. Tatum could have just as easily won that award. He became the first player in league history to lead his team in points, rebounds, and assists in a finals series without claiming that award.

But that only affirmed their oneness and provided a lesson. Can personal ego and pursuit of individual awards threaten the community we need to build to succeed? Can unwarranted and vitriolic criticism lead us to lose faith? 

Mr. Brown famously tweeted the words of one of his former instructors in 2014: “My teacher said she will look me up in the Cobb county jail in 5 years … Wow,” it read. Those words could have discouraged Mr. Brown. But they fueled him, as did the financial challenges which defined Mr. Tatum’s childhood.

When they looked up on Monday night, the confetti rained down on a potential dynasty in the making. But they had become champions long before that.