Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are showing "no signs of spoiled friendship" following the Boston Celtics' Banner 18 title run in the 2024 NBA Playoffs according to NESN's Gio Rivera -- this, in response to No. 0 admitting he could've defended his star teammate better to the media.
"There are no signs of a spoiled friendship between Tatum and Brown," Rivera prefaced before saying, "They’ve both been tasked to perform under the microscope of outsider scrutiny, earned their well-deserved supermax contracts, and have the opportunity to flip their first NBA championship into a multi-Banner dynasty — cementing their legacies in Celtics history."
Tatum told Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix that he regrets never going to President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens or any of his teammates and publicly declaring support for Brown being in Boston alongside him. Winning a championship has brought Tatum and Brown as close as possible to each other, though notably not as teammates on Team USA this summer during the 2024 Olympics.
Jaylen Brown not being traded for Kevin Durant turned out to be best move for Boston Celtics
Had the Celtics traded Brown for Kevin Durant, as had been strongly rumored throughout the 2022 offseason, there likely wouldn't have been enough assets for Boston to land Kristaps Porzingis -- since Marcus Smart could've been included in the deal to get it over the finish line -- and there definitely wouldn't have been leftover assets to land Jrue Holiday.
At the time, teaming Durant and Tatum seemed too enticing to worry about the future, but now that we're in it, and Banner 18 is being raised this Fall, it's easy to say that not landing KD was the best thing to happen for this franchise.
Brown is better than Durant at this point, and the Celtics now have a complete lineup that gels and is projected to stick together for another few years barring an unforeseen trade.
