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By Colin McDonough
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have already matched the Big 3 era of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen in Boston Celtics history.
Now as a new NBA season dawns, Tatum and Brown will try to surpass those three’s one title, and win a second straight championship.
For Celtics fans, 2024 could not have gone better. The Celtics finished with the best record in the NBA, went 16-3 in the playoffs, getting some Leprechaun luck with matchups and injuries to other teams, but still earning their unprecedented 18th championship with a 4-1 series win over Luka, old friend now foe Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks, 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals.
Tatum and Brown got the weight of not winning a championship off their shoulders. Al Horford won his first title since his Florida Gator days. Head coach Joe Mazzulla went from goat to having the master stroke in his second season at the helm. President Brad Stevens showed that trading Marcus Smart and bringing in Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis was no doubt the best course of action. And even the ownership group went all in and it paid off (it’ll pay off even more when they sell the team).
Even better, everyone is back. And we mean everyone besides Oshae Brissett and Svi Mykhailiuk. Horford didn’t go out on top and returned. Tatum signed the richest contract in history a year after Brown’s extension. Derrick White signed an extension and Porzingis and Holiday are still under contract. The Celtics are in a great position with their two stars in their prime with their championship supporting cast.
But being the first Celtic team to repeat since Bill Russell lead the team as player-coach in 1968 and 1969 won’t be easy. Even the hope of a dynasty to match Larry Bird’s 3, or just to get a second one, unlike Pierce-Garnett-Allen’s Celts did, (we won’t mention Allen’s time with the Heat), is a task as tall as the rafters.
Because the rest of the NBA is coming for the Celtics, especially two of their biggest rivals. The Knicks have their best team since at least the 90s, possibly the 70s, getting Mikal Bridges and Karl Anthony-Towns. The Sixers got Paul George. The Cavaliers extended Donovan Mitchell, the Pacers and Magic are improving each year. There are also two old guard teams who are thorns in the C’s sides. If Giannis and Damian Lillard put it together in Milwaukee they can be a threat, and Miami has to be killed twice or three times with arguably the best coach in the league. And that’s just the East.
The West saw OKC, and Dallas retooling and reloading. The Timberwolves will try to take the next step with Anthony Edwards. Denver is only 16 months removed from winning a championship. And teams like the Lakers and Warriors can never be trusted to lie down until they are officially eliminated.
Before an anticipated season tips off, the reasons why the first thing you do when you enter TD Garden is look up will have a welcome addition.
After a 16-year drought, the Celtics, who talk about and care about championship banners more than any other sports franchise in North America, will raise another. A tradition in Boston from Russell to Bird to Pierce will take place tomorrow night.
A new banner hanging from the rafters above the parquet floor is the most important thing to see for Celtics fans.
But for the Celtics players the most important banner is hanging seven miles west in the Red Auerbach Center above the practice facility floor.
No, not the banner that says 2024 NBA World Champions.
The blank one that remains empty until the next championship.
