“We just have to know that every game has its own story.” —Jaylen Brown
BOSTON – The story of Game 1, the story of these NBA Finals, is Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown.
Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis was a breakout story with a fantastic but unexpected performance after being inactive for over a month. But Brown was the tone-setter, as he has been for Boston throughout the postseason.
Among all the stories running through these NBA Finals, Brown is the most compelling. At 27 years old, he has played not only in the shadow of teammate Jayson Tatum, but also in the shadow of Celtics legends whose spirits resonate. Twenty-four numbers have been retired and 17 NBA championship banners hang from the rafters of TD Garden, a reminder to any player wearing a Celtics jersey that Boston basketball is played in a hallowed hall, no matter what. who achieve less than a title. , probably not enough to move the needle of history.
But despite all that, Brown took a piece of Celtics history in the Celtics’ 107-89 victory on June 6. Brown’s performance (22 points, three steals, three blocks) made history. No Celtics player had ever accomplished such a feat in the Finals. One of his blocks came late in the third quarter when Brown emphatically rejected a shot from Kyrie Irving, the Boston villain. Brown exhorted the delirious fans who, on cue, broke into chants of “Kyrie sucks.”
Brown downplayed this and other moments in his performance.
A reporter asked Brown how he felt after Irving’s block. “What was he feeling?” Brown said, repeating the question. “Just trying to make some plays, get my team going. Defense is what we have to defend. Right there, that was an example of that.”
Another reporter asked Brown what it meant to him to put on such a performance on the big stage of an NBA Finals. “It doesn’t mean anything,” Brown said without any sign of emotion. “Just get ready for the next one.”
Brown was more expansive when a reporter noted how he had consistently gotten into the paint against Dallas and created opportunities for his teammates. “For the most part, that’s what I’ve been doing all season, just getting to the paint. That puts a lot of pressure on the defense,” Brown said, noting that with so many good shooters on the team, “making those reads is important for us; I have to continue to maintain that throughout the series.”
The important part of his response was, “That’s what I’ve been doing all season.”
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown watches after Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks on June 6 at TD Garden in Boston.
Brian Babineau/NBAE via /Keynote USA/Getty Images
Despite playing like this all season, Brown was inexplicably left off the All-NBA teams this season. Presumably, some of the national media that didn’t vote for Brown were in the interview room after Thursday’s game.
Game 1, this entire postseason and the rest of these Finals are messages to the voters and the spirits of the Celtics’ past that he belongs.
While Brown and these Celtics are desperate to finally put their own championship banner in the rafters, Brown is waging his own crusade to prove that he is simultaneously a great teammate, a perfect and willing complement to Tatum and an essential component to gain. . He’s doing all this without climbing a mountain and screaming.
He nearly screamed last month after Boston swept the Indiana Pacers to win the Eastern Conference finals. Brown was fantastic. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, his corner 3-pointer with no time remaining in regulation sent the game into overtime and allowed Boston to win a game they should have lost. He followed that up in Game 2 with a 40-point performance and then two strong offensive and defensive performances in Games 3 and 4.
Brown was named MVP of the Eastern Conference finals, although after Game 4 of that series, when his name was announced, Brown admitted he was genuinely surprised.
“I wasn’t expecting anything,” he said. “I never win m…” she said, laughing. The room laughed with him.
“I was glad I won.”
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In that moment of raw candor, I recognized the underdog, the stepson, the partner who obediently plays his role, although he wants to be recognized from time to time as the straw that stirs the drink.
Unlike other duos in the past, notably Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, there has been no public criticism between Tatum and Brown. There seems to be mutual respect and they seem to enjoy a relationship similar to that of Siskel and Ebert in which they enjoy what each brings to the table. The comparisons have largely been external, trying to pit two young black men against each other, with critics saying Tatum is perhaps the better all-around player. Sometimes the talk can manifest itself in concrete ways, such as when a player of Brown’s caliber is rejected.
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd added fuel to the fire and contributed to the debate by praising Brown: “Well, Jaylen (Brown) is their best player,” Kidd said Saturday when asked about Brown’s performance in Game 1. “Just looking at what he does defensively, he picked Luka (Doncic) all over the court. He got to the free throw line. He did it all and that’s what your best player does. I just understand that he plays on both sides, defense and offense, at a high pace. And he’s been doing that throughout the playoffs. I mean, when we talk about the Most Valuable Player of the Eastern Conference, it seems like he has picked up where he left off.” On Saturday, Brown dismissed Kidd’s comments, saying, “I have no reaction.”
On May 27, in what should have been a moment of celebration in Indianapolis after winning the Eastern Conference Most Valuable Player award, Brown allowed himself to speak insightfully about how he made peace with the criticism he has often faced. faced, especially when the Celtics lose; face if Boston fails to win a title.
Brown has been an outspoken advocate for social justice. He is unapologetically Black and has spoken out about police violence in the Black community, economic injustice, and the need for empowerment. After the Eastern Conference finals, Brown suggested that his social and political advocacy could work against him.
“I’m in that phase of my life where I just accept all forms of negativity or whatever the case may be,” he said. “Some things I don’t understand and it is not my duty to understand them. Knowing who I am and what I stand for sometimes makes people uncomfortable, and sometimes I miss out on things, I miss out on opportunities, awards, marketing deals or whatever, and you know, at this point, just embrace it.
“I am who I am and I am going to stand firm in my beliefs. “I’m one of those people who would die for what they believe in, so I accept it right now and I’m grateful that I can be in this position and the energy is about to change.”
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown high-fives fans during the fourth quarter against the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 6 in Boston.
Maddie Meyer//Keynote USA/Getty Images
While some voting journalists may have overlooked Brown, the Celtics did not.
In July 2023, Brown signed the richest deal in NBA history: a five-year supermax extension worth up to $303.7 million. The contract guarantees that Brown will be a Celtic through the 2028-29 season. Brown, at 27, stands out in an era where money, not titles, often seems to be the highest value. He still has the upper hand and enough professional pride to feel insulted when he feels disrespected professionally.
“I think I’m one of the best two-way wings, guards, whatever you want to say, in this game,” he said. “I thought this year he had taken a level and increased it. I took the matchup, I picked guys all over the court, I chased them off screens, I fought with the big guys and I felt like I should have been totally defensive (team) and that probably hurt me the most because it’s one of the things I set out to do. in this season what I wanted to be.”
That’s what made his post-Game 1 comments impressive. We have seen cases where an athlete gets the long-awaited purse and his performance declines, almost as if the gold has compromised the hunger that drove him. This series is a cornerstone of the Celtics’ and Brown’s legacy. When the Celtics won their last championship in 2008, Brown was 12 years old. Tatum was 10 years old.
Brown rejected the narrative that he and Tatum have climbed the postseason mountain for the past seven seasons only to descend again with the same cast of characters.
“I know everyone wants to pigeonhole us as far as what happened in the past, but we’ve had a different team every year,” Brown said. “We’ve had three coaches in the last five years and still people want it to look like it’s the same, it’s the same, it’s the same. But time has passed, experience has been gained and I believe that now we are prepared to give our best.”
Boston took a giant step forward in Game 1. I’m excited to see how Brown plays throughout the rest of the series. As he wisely pointed out, each game is his own story.
And for Brown, one game means nothing when you’re trying to build a legacy.
William C. Rhoden, former award-winning New York Times sports columnist and author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves, is a regular writer for Andscape.
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