The Boston Celtics are set to face off in the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks next week. And naturally, the Celtics have been discussed heavily throughout their postseason run. And according to head coach Joe Mazzulla, not all of the discourse around the team has been accurate, especially when it comes to the relationship between stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
After the Celtics defeated the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals to reach the NBA Finals, Jaylen Brown was named the Eastern Conference Finals MVP over Tatum.
Days after this, there was discourse around the sports media landscape that Tatum wasn’t overly happy that Brown won the award over him, hinting at a divide in their relationship.
This was discussed quite openly on ESPN’s Get Up, where Udonis Haslem shared the belief that Tatum was “shocked” instead of happy for his teammate winning this award.
This might be the dumbest ESPN segment in the Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown era. And thats saying a lot.
“When Jaylen Brown wins the award the rest of the team just goes crazy, they were so genuinely excited for him. And you did not seem to think it was mirrored in Jayson Tatum” pic.twitter.com/3LGv7lBs1w
— GEORGE (@ItsGeorgeyy) May 29, 2024
Mazzulla didn’t specifically reference this clip. But he did take issue with the sports media landscape as a whole, reinforcing that Tatum and Brown have a great relationship and that these “click bait” narratives are meant to “keep people relevant”.
“I am really praying about how deep I want to get into that,” said Mazzulla in a video shared by NBC Sports Boston on X. “The whole thing about that really pisses me off & I think it’s unfair to both of them. I think it’s stupid that people have to use those two guys names and use information they don’t know to click baits to stay relevant.
“It’s very unfair that those two get compared. They are two completely different players. They are great teammates, they love each other and they go about their process in different ways. Why do they always have to be lumped together? They love each other, they push each other every single day in practice. It’s unfair that they are compared to each other. You see other duos around the league don’t have to go through that. It’s because they have been so successful their entire career. So people need them in order to stay relevant.”
"The whole thing about that really pisses me off & I think it's unfair to both of them"
Joe Mazzulla has a strong response to the narrative about Jaylen Brown & Jayson Tatum's relationship pic.twitter.com/bEunyIDR2m
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) May 31, 2024
Mazzulla does raise a very fair point here. It’s a bit of a tired argument with no clear proof whatsoever whenever media members speak about a relationship that they have zero insight into.
If anything, Mazzulla knows far more about how Tatum and Brown co-exist in the Celtics locker room than any media member would.
Luckily, Mazzulla and the Celtics have an excellent chance to completely silence these narratives by defeating the Mavericks to earn their first NBA Championship since 2008.
