With Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, one of the NBA’s top duos, approaching their peak years together, the Celtics have two genuine superstars on their hands.
Tatum thinks they need one another to accomplish the main objective, thus it’s a good thing they’re together.
“We need each other,” Tatum recently told Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. “We can have enough individual success, making All-NBA and All-Stars and getting contracts, but ultimately we know what is going to matter: if we can hang a championship banner. It’s a long season, playoffs is long, and we understand I won’t be able to win a championship without him and he won’t be able to do it without me.
“Knowing we have to get the best out of each other, pushing each other and be able to excel individually together. We have to be the best version of ourselves together, for us and for the team, and everybody understands that.”
Getting a professional athlete to say they can’t do something is no easy assignment, but it’s becoming more and more obvious to the team that winning is easier said than done.
Brown and Tatum have been teammates for six seasons. In that time, they have combined to participate in one NBA Finals, four conference finals, six All-Star games, and get four All-NBA choices, but they have yet to win a championship. However, they are squarely facing their finest opportunity.
“I can’t even put it into words what (winning) would be like. We are due,” Tatum said. “(We’ve made) four conference finals together, getting to the championship, coming up short, learning from that. We know what it feels like to lose. We do. We put in the work and we truly believe that we’re going to figure it out and it’s going to be well worth it when we do.”
Wednesday night’s game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden marks the start of the Celtics’ quest for Banner 18.
