There was something satisfactory and familiar in the way these Celtics won their first championship Monday night. Their team was built through the draft, the old-fashioned way, then learned through failures in a climb that was mostly linear.
They were Michael Jordan before finally overcoming the Detroit Bad Boys. Or LeBron James hoisting the NBA Finals MVP after his playoff disappointments.
These Celtics, namely the two Jays, Tatum and Brown, always seemed capable of the dominance they exhibited during their 2024 championship run, which culminated with Game 5’s 106-88 steamroll over the Mavericks.
But they had to show it first. And after they finally overcame their playoff ghosts Monday — with Tatum shedding his choker label by dropping 31 points in the closeout game — we have to wonder: Is this the start of a dynasty? The same question was posed last year of the Nuggets, who went from champions to a second-round flameout because repeating is much easier on paper. The NBA, with six different champions in the last six years, is deeper than ever and is operating with a collective bargaining agreement that encourages parity.
But Boston’s lasting power is easy to envision with Tatum and Brown still in their mid-20s. They had nothing close to equals in the East this year. You could argue the Knicks represent their stiffest competition in the conference, and not even the most optimistic NYK supporter watched the 2024 Finals and reasonably deduced, “My team could beat Boston if it were just healthy.” Nope, a seismic move is still necessary for the Knicks. So maybe Giannis Antetokounmpo, or somebody in that ballpark, jars loose.
In the meantime, the championship goes through Boston — where Kristaps Porzingis and Jeff Van Gundy, familiar faces to Knicks fans, secured their first titles Monday.
Porzingis, injured throughout most of Boston’s 16-3 playoff run, returned for Game 5 with five points off the bench in 16 minutes.
“How could I [miss this game]?” Porzingis said. “On the home floor. Now we’re the champions. Let’s go.”
Tatum and Brown have the type of durability and attitude you want at the top of the organizational totem pole. Neither puts up MVP-caliber numbers — which probably takes away from the perception of Boston being an all-time great — and it’s tough to identify which one is the better player, as reiterated by an NBA Finals MVP announcement that could’ve gone either way. (It went to Brown.)
As a duo, they utterly outclassed Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Especially Irving, the Boston enemy who was a disaster every time he touched the TD Garden parquet floor in the Finals. The point guard scored just 15 points Monday on 5 of 16 shooting, the worst performance in a series of Kyrie duds.
Lucky The Leprechaun got his revenge.
“Basketball is a game of centimeters, man, sometimes inches,” Irving said. “So when a ball is flying off your hands, sometimes it’s going to feel good, sometimes it isn’t.”
Jason Kidd, the Mavericks coach, coincidentally could’ve prevented his team’s demise roughly 11 years ago. He had just taken the job as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, who, on the night of the 2013 draft, agreed to trade for the linchpins of the previous Celtics championship, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. As the story goes, Garnett, armed with a no-trade clause, was reluctant to leave Boston.
He required a pep talk to join Brooklyn via phone calls from Pierce and, yes, Kidd. If the trade was just for Pierce, the Nets would’ve only relinquished one draft pick and spare parts.
But the inclusion of Garnett, who was physically shot at 37 years old, made it a complicated megadeal to acquire a future Hall of Famer while matching salaries. The Nets, as a result, gave up multiple draft picks and swaps. One turned into Brown in 2017, another turned into Tatum in 2018.
If only Kidd never made that phone call.
But he did. And now the Celtics are hanging another banner — their record 18th championship — with visions of more upcoming.
“They took the long road. A lot of Eastern Conference Finals, a lot of heartbreak,” Bob Myers, the former NBA executive who helped build the dynasty in Golden State, said on ESPN. “But that’s what it takes to win a championship. It’s poetic.”
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