Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown Pair An Ace For Boston Celtics

One thing to be said for the American sports media: Generally, they’re very good at self-flagellation, flinging up bad past takes from colleagues and pointing out just how wrong, in retrospect, those takes were. We can be perhaps a bit too enthusiastic about pointing out our wrongness, however, in an effort to write stories about the vindication of executives or coaches or, most often, players.

That process has been in overdrive this week as the Celtics broke through, with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum playing key rules, to defeat the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals and earn the pair’s first spot in the NBA’s championship round. As soon as Boston’s Finals ticket was punched, we were reminded of the inane conversations that went down five or six months ago about the viability of the Brown and Tatum pairing as a legitimate contender.

Indeed, there were those making the case, back when Boston was below .500 (January 21, at 24-25, was the last time that was the case), that the Celtics should ship out Brown because he and Tatum were too similar and had no apparent chemistry. Thing is, it was a very small minority of media folks who were carrying the break-’em-up flag.

Veteran reporter Jeff Goodman has been a longtime proponent of sending Brown packing and stuck with that early this season. Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer also noted, on Sirius XM Radio, that, “I think this is definitely the beginning of the end for the Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown pairing.” And, of course, there was former Celtics center Kendrick Perkins, who said back on January 7, “As bad as we all want to see it work, they can’t coexist.”

While those voices got attention, there was never any real consideration given to splitting Brown and Tatum in the Celtics’ front office—it was all just opinion and hypothetical scenarios. There was far more sentiment against splitting up Tatum and Brown, even as the Celtics scuffled, because they’re both rare NBA talents and it is not easy to collect two on one roster. To wit:

Former NBA star Jalen Rose, on ESPN on December 23: “Let me tell you something: Do not break up Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. By no means. … They’re both really good athletes, and they’re both young. So you build around them. You don’t break them up.”

ESPN’s Jay Williams, on January 13: “. All I would say is that it’s hard to find two stars that have the potential that these two do. I don’t start by saying these two guys are the problem, can they co-exist? I start by saying, how can I build the right pieces around these two? Because these two can be the cornerstone of my franchise for the next 10 to 15 years.”

Former Celtic Brian Scalabrine, on SI.com on January 14: “I don’t understand why people bring this conversation up. I just don’t get it. You have young, versatile wings that can defend, they can score. … The ability to be big, long, athletic, guard, handle—those things are hard to find. They both have them.”

ESPN’s Kevin Pelton, writing on January 15: “I’m amused by the notion Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are too similar to work together. … Given Brown is 25 and Tatum won’t turn 24 until March, giving them time to continue their development together — preferably with a better playmaker at point guard than we’ve seen since injuries sidetracked Kemba Walker’s career — appears the wisest course of action.”

Boston Herald beat writer Mark Murphy, on CLNS’s Celtics Beat on January 21: “All this experience together, it’s invaluable. Why would you cut that short now? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Jaylen Brown: ‘The Narrative Isn’t Going To Say That’

Still, it is a storyline that has drawn considerable attention at the NBA Finals, one that has been convenient to resurrect now that we can see, plainly, how wrong it was. Tatum has averaged a healthy 27.0 points in the postseason, with Brown adding 22.9 points. The break-up argument was unfair all along, really, because much of the Celtics’ stumbling and bumbling start to the season was not so much a matter of whether Brown and Tatum could succeed together, but whether they could get on the floor together at all.

Remember, in the first 37 games of the season, through January 2, the Celtics were without either Tatum or Brown for 18 games because of injuries or Covid-19 issues. Playing half their games without one of the two stars made adjusting to new coach Ime Udoka’s schemes all the more difficult. As Brown pointed out, few gave much heed to that part of the Celtics’ first two months of the year.

“Early on in the season, I was injured. I missed about 15 games,” Brown said before Game 1 of the Finals. “You know, the narrative isn’t going to say that. They are just going to say that you guys lost. Doesn’t matter what the excuse is. We’ve got a first-year head coach. We were trying to figure it out. We play in a city that it has no patience for any excuses, so we didn’t make any. But as things started to come together, we got healthier. We made a couple moves in the front office that were vital for us, and things started to fall in line.”

They’ve fallen in line enough to get the Celtics onto the NBA’s biggest stage, to put Brown and Tatum into the spotlight with a title on the line. In the end, they certainly can play together. But then, most knew that all along.