What This Championship Means for the Boston Celtics

What This Championship Means for the Boston Celtics

the dust has settled the finals are over and the Boston Celtics are champions once again for the first time in 16 years with their Victory the Seas have pushed their franchise back to the top of the ticket 18 NBA championships in franchise history the most of any team ever so what does it mean now that the Celtics are champions well the title answers quite a few questions about the Celtics for one they have to feel really good about making Joe Missoula the head coach after emay oko departure Missoula just became the youngest NBA head coach to win a championship since 1970 question marks had surrounded the 35-year-old Skipper ever since he inherited the job after oka’s departure an appointment he wasn’t really supposed to get there were Rumblings about the heat of his chair after last year’s loss in the Conference Finals to the eight- seated heat all of which becomes irrelevant he is an NBA champion he has proven that he can get through to these Celtics and help them beat their demons Drew holl was brilliant in these finals and elevated their game every time he was on the floor nearly every time he was switched onto Luca or Kyrie he stopped them period his defensive impact cannot be overstated and at the Helm of the offense he was as important as any other Celtic an absolute GameChanger christops porzingis is weird injury will overshadow his next step it’ll require months of rehab after surgery before he is ready to play again but the Unicorn was a dynamic two-way force in Games 1 and two and played 16 minutes to close out game five after being injured he was absolutely key in two of the Celtics four wins and not to say that Boston wouldn’t have won without him but he deserves a boatload of credit Al Horford got a ring something even a DieHard Lakers fan has to be happy about and not only did he get a ring he absolutely earned it with porzingis out for the majority of the playoffs Horford at age 38 did a miraculous job of picking up the slack and providing the so of the Celtics how can you not love that and of course the Jaylen Brown Jason Tatum Dynamic gets completely Vindicated a rebuilding process that began in 2013 one that never actually involved bottoming out resulted in six Eastern Conference Finals appearances two trips to the NBA finals and now the culmination an NBA championship of course the two left the door open for Talking Heads and podcast pundits to wonder aloud as to who the real Alpha Dog of the team is but the duo proved it doesn’t really matter they did their jobs and entrenched themselves into Boston Celtics lore one of the most hallowed legacies in all of sports Brown validated his record-breaking contract with nothing less than the finals Most Valuable Player award he was one of the revelations of the playoffs and elevated his game throughout the postseason especially when it mattered the most and on the biggest stage gone are the talks about his left hand or his turnovers or his shot consistency we will spend the next several months talking about how exceptional Brown was on both ends of the court from his clutch shots to his lock down defense against one of the League’s brightest stars A fitting and worthy partner to Jason Tatum which brings us to the man himself Jason Tatum one of the most polarizing players in the league today there will still be people who dismiss his accomplishments there will still be those who believe he is just the beneficiary of a homegrown super super team never mind the fact that he already owns the NBA record for the most points ever scored in a playoff game seven or that he is a perennial First Team all League selection or that he just captained the Boston Celtics to a championship and led the team in points rebounds and assists for the entire postseason he didn’t win the finals MVP and to some that will be their main takeaway from these finals those people are dumb the Celtics would not have won had he played any other way and by the way you know some other players who didn’t win the finals MVP when they won their first ring Steph Curry Larry Bird Isaiah Thomas just saying Tatum’s rebounding was outstanding all series long and he was the team’s leading passer by a considerable margin the Mavericks made a concerted effort to pack the paint when Tatum drove to the rim what did Tatum do over and over again he made the right pass and got the ball into the hands of the right guy to make Dallas pay he didn’t jack up shots and try to get his stats he didn’t make it a point to play way that would have won him the MVP he did the things that make you a champion and I’m sure if you were to ask him that’s all that matters and as a whole the 2024 Celtics submit their application to the alltime team discussion The Architects of this team Brad Stevens the entire Celtics front office and yes Danny a can take a Victory lap it’s always tough to talk about these things in the moment because you never really know what’s going to stick in 5 10 15 years and yes the Celtics had an easier road to the finals almost all of the Eastern Powers faced injuries to key players Giannis Butler Mitchell embiid halberton nearly every Nick but here’s their resume a 64 and 18 regular season record the best in the NBA by a considerable margin a 16 and3 playoff record one of the very best in history the second best defensive rating in the NBA during the regular season and the best offensive rating in the NBA ever Boston could help who they played all they could do was beat them which they did thanks to one of the deepest most well-balanced and well-rounded rosters in the history of the game we talked about Drew KP Horford Brown and Tatum but the Celtics run a true nin men deep Derek white is one of the very best role players in the league pton Pritchard was hitting shots from half court and Sam Hower shot almost 40% from Beyond The Arc throughout the playoffs I wouldn’t say that they’re in that upper upper echelon of teams but they do have an argument to be remembered as one of the great teams of their era and I know it feels like it’s been a long time coming like I said this whole rebuild started when Boston traded kg and Pierce in 2013 Tatum and brown have been teammates since 2016 but the thing of it is Tatum is only 26 Brown is only 27 they have proven to be the most consistently competitive team in the NBA for nearly a decade and they are only now entering the period of their careers that should be remembered as their Peak and now they are NBA champions they can go into any game against anyone and know that they have what it takes it has been a long time coming for the Celtics but the scary part is this could be just the beginning

Are the 2023-24 Boston Celtics an all-time championship team? We recap the Celtics title run and what it means for Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the franchise.

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