Jayson Tatum deserves all the praise in the world! – Stephen A. on NBA title win 🏆 | First Take

Jayson Tatum deserves all the praise in the world! – Stephen A. on NBA title win 🏆 | First Take

to be up there one day it’s that extra motivation soon to be raised to the ra possible been so close these last two years but it will end in disappointment they’ll fall short of their goal all of those experiences led to here Brown fires up the three the whole world is watching so now is the time to show it Jaylen brown with the flush anything’s possible Banner number 18 has been secured the Celtics are NBA champions my partner in crime Jason Tatum he was with me the whole way we shared it sh together it’s a surreal feeling we did it we did it Jason Tatum what a game silencing the critics 31 Points 11 assists eight rebounds while Jaylen Brown scored 21 as Boston top Dallas 10688 in game five the champion Jason Tatum the finals MVP Jaylen Brown are at the mic it could have gone to anybody it could have gone to Jason um Jason like I can’t talk enough about his selflessness you know I can’t talk enough about his his attitude and his just how he approached not just this series or the finals but just the playoffs in general um and we did it together as a team um and and that was the most important thing these last seven years have been a roller coaster up and down I had to listen to all the that people said about me and tonight it was worth it oh my god oh you just heard Jason seven years they finally reached the Mountaintop couldn’t be happier from both of them Wendy I’ll start with you so Jaylen Brown Finals MVP do you feel like that was the right choice so I did not have a vote there are 11 votes that determine this award I did not have one if I did have one I would have voted for Jaylen but it was close Stephen A when we were waiting for that announcement the only person on that stage who knew it was Adam Silver he got to announce it nobody knew there was genuine suspense that doesn’t happen most years the voting was 74 by the way seven for Jaylen four for um for Jason close you know Jason Tatum did have two 30-point games in this series and he had a magnificent closeout game yeah it won’t go down in the annals because it wasn’t a close game it wasn’t a great game yeah but he had 31 points and 11 assists tremendous performance by him only Celtic in history to do that is that right that’s right so that’s I can understand if you’re a Jason Tatum fan and there were some Tatum fans in the crowd last night who there was there was a boo or two when that happened um I can see why you were like hey how come my guy didn’t get it and certainly was a crowning moment but Jaylen Brown from the start to the finish in this series was brilliant not only his offense but his defense he was a bit bit more efficient than than uh than Tatum was y he smothered Luca donic last night smothered him and that to me that was a factor in why I favored him at the end yeah I think the defense for Jaylen Brown was the factor for me his ability to pick Luca up 94 feet from the basket to apply pressure on Luca at all times and to put pressure on Luca when Luca was defending that’s something that we didn’t feel like the Timberwolves did at all they didn’t make Luca work defensively Jaylen Brown made luuka work on both sides he was so Elite in transition he was Elite in the half court on both sides of the ball when you talk about being a true two-way player and the impact you have on both sides that’s to me why he got MVP well you know what both of y’all are right and I get you um it was Wendy’s absolutely right we was we were standing there and nobody knew but Adam Silva and it could have gone either way because you’re thinking about how this goes I just gave the number 30 and 10 no Celtic has ever done that in finals history it’s never happened he’s boss of Celtics we talking about here with their storyed history and yet nobody has ever pulled that off so you have to pay attention to that with Jason t you also had to pay attention to the fact that he came on strong um in game three and ultimately game five of this series it really showed up and showed out and put his fingerprints on things but the reason why I don’t have a problem with jayen doing it at all is a couple of reasons the things that you all mentions is true but tone setting matters and remember what he did to Luca last night he was guarding Luca from the open and tap of game one of this series he set the tone I’m taking the toughest defensive assignment I guarded him during the regular season this is the finals nothing’s going to be any different I know how pivotal I am to the success of this team offensively but damn that I’m going to accept and embrace this defensive assignment as well and he did that and so doing that while still being a model of consistency in games one and two porzingis was the star in the first half of game one Drew holiday was the star in game two but the model of consistency for games one two and three with Jaylen Brown and because that consistency was there on both ends of the floor that put Dallas in that three hold I think that ultimately usurps what we saw from Jason Tatum in games three and five to secure MVP honors of this series probably the most ideal outcome if I could have engineered it C MVP would have been five votes for Jaylen five votes for Jason and one vote for Drew holiday because Drew holiday was awesome in this series I could make a case for him not really above Jaylen or Jason but he was the number one plus minus player in this series he had a a bad game for but they all did yeah and last night by the way this this ended up not being a game and this will not be a memorable game Jason and Jaylen came out cold they were one of nine shooting there was tension in the building last night I don’t know if you felt that CU you were on countdown but the the crowd really had to be sort of goed to get into it it wasn’t like a typical closeup game because I think they were nervous after game four it was Drew holiday that came out and set the tone in that in that game and and settled them down and he just had 15 points and my point is you could make I could have made a case for Drew holiday to win Eastern Conference MVP he was that good and it would have been great if there had been the first split honor um the voters I know I wasn’t a part of that but the voters were negotiating about themselves like what do you think we should do here that doesn’t normally happen it was a it’s it was a worthy negotiation because I was sitting there talking to Michael will Bal Malik and Bob Myers and them and jior surrender to a lesser degree and I was like co-mvp is not something we can sarily dismiss it is possible in this particular situation because they were both equally formidable when it really really counted absolutely no I was going to say Jaylen Brown hearing him say if Luca stays in I’m staying in or I’m GNA pick up Luca the entire way on the court like hearing those words from him and wanting that assignment over and over again was truly special especially because he felt like he got snubbed from the regular season awards he had a point to prove on both ends did he did I gave him my vote for the all NBA team he had I had him third team I had Jason Tatum first team I didn’t think he deserved to be off the all NBA team he definitely deserved to have an attitude about that but what I also loved about it the piggybacking off your point is i l the fact that they were both miked and they both and they both wanted to be absolutely prior to it’s not something let me let let me jump on this after we up 30 or something not that you would do that being Mike but I’m just saying they roll up in there together we’ll both be Mike for this game we going to handle our business after getting BL that getting about cutting a commercial Jason Tatum voiced it Jason Tatum voiced the commercial now I’m sure it didn’t happen too far in advance yeah I was talking to his agent about it and he really wouldn’t give up how far in advance it was I do think it was recent Jason Tatum wanted his voice to be used in the commercial saying keep not believing in me I can’t remember exactly how it was it was about two weeks was it well really well that’s breaking news to me I’m saying I’m not giving you a specific date I don’t know the specific date imely about two I want to dive in on Jason Tatum a little bit more cuz he alluded to it seven years hearing people talk he heard a lot of criticism there were times when we felt like he choked when the moment was the biggest obviously this was not the case Andrea do you feel like he finally silenced all the critics yes yeah he has a championship what what was one of the critiques for for Jason Tatum that he settles for shots that you lose him you can’t find him when the game is on the line he could have settled for shots in last night’s game he was one of seven from three he could have kept settling for jump shots and what did he do he pursued the rim with Reckless abandon he was physical he continued to get to that right hand and finish at the rim and put pressure on Dallas he led the team he facilitated he did not go down at all he fought his leadership and that was the biggest thing right he was never snubbed from regular season awards the biggest question was can he close in the finals can he lead his team in the finals can he make plays in the finals and he did that for sure and I and I also think he got criticism but he also did as you mentioned he did have games where he did struggle he did struggle in the 2022 finals that a little streaky yeah for sure like like he when you when you win you can talk your talk and he was starting it yesterday and I say go through it all summer yes let it all out say whatever you want this is your time to to to settle all scores but he did have to learn and that’s one of the things I think that the Mavericks will take away from this someday it could be them who get to say you know all critics but part of the reason why they got to this point was because of those failures and that’s what made this really more organic and really more special well I would say this I mean listen he deserves all the praise in the world and you know winners usually take that attitude like Steph Curry’s like what they gonna say now Jason T like what they gonna say now we get all of that uh but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to be checked to some degree and by that I mean this first of all when you look at the criticism how much criticism has J Jason Tatum really really received when he lost when he was younger we understood you first you were young then you ran into LeBron James the real criticism arrived a couple of years ago when you lost to Golden State it really wasn’t any criticism before then you always of course but I said you know PRI did that that proceeded Miami I’m just talking about the fact that for the most part you’ve been in this league what is it around seven years now well the first five nobody was bothering Jason Tatum you knew that he was a star on the rise you knew his day would come and it you know as far as I’m concerned that was a that was a very good honeymoon period for him because he continued to grow and Blossom work on his game get better everybody noticed and we just said he’s next he’s next he’s next and then what happened is you got derailed by what some believe to be an inferior Golden State team two years ago because of the greatness of Steph Curry come shining through and even though you got hurt in the game seven then it was Jaylen Brown who didn’t step up and handle this business and that’s why he worked so hard and was so focused this offseason this pass off season to get himself right so they could win the championship last night the fact of the matter is what preceded that was a three-oh hole to the Miami Heat that left the basketball World a gas you looked at the Miami Heat and you said there is no way in hell they’re supposed to be up 3 on this Boston Celtics team so yes you did come back but that’s when the criticism really really really hit you lost in the finals to Steph Curry okay that’s not great they were and they were head to one at home and then Steph Curry exploded and when Steph Curry explode that usually you know demoralizes a lot of people this is the greatest shooter that God has ever created okay that’s fine you follow that up by being down 3 to Miami no reason in hell that should have happened and that’s when the criticism really really elevated until they came back notched it at 33 and so he was feeling the residue from that to some degree but he’s clearly made a mens for it he’s a champion he’s class personified pristine image winner obviously got all the skills in the world and you can’t help but fantasize there’s a guy by the name and you know this listen one of the nicest guys name is Brian Colangelo he may never get an Executives position in this profession again because you got holds in the swapping a number one and three pick and even when you moved up to get number one and let Boston dropped to number three you still took marel fultz instead of Jason Tatum that is something that is people are going to hold on to forever because coming out of Duke the brother was 69 with a Jay and a handle you don’t pass on that for a Marquel faults and that’s what happened [Music]

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Andraya Carter and Brian Windhorst join Molly Qerim to react to the Boston Celtics winning the 2024 NBA title and discuss if Jaylen Brown was the right choice for NBA Finals MVP.

0:00 Celtics win NBA-record 18th title
2:00 Jaylen Brown the right choice for NBA Finals MVP?
5:00 NBA Finals MVP voting
9:30 Did Tatum silence his critics?

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