Tatum fires back at doubters in postgame embrace with Brown originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Jayson Tatum has kept receipts from early in the Boston Celtics’ 2021-22 season.
The C’s rough patch sparked some debate about whether Tatum and Jaylen Brown could co-exist on the team going forward. As silly as that sounds now that they’ve led Boston to its first NBA Finals since 2010, it was a real talking point for a couple of months earlier in the campaign. Tatum addressed the commentary during a press conference early in January, just before the Celtics began to wreak havoc on the league.
Celtics-Heat takeaways: C’s hold on late to advance to NBA Finals
“Obviously we live in a world where we’re on our phones and the TV and we see all the things about ‘we can’t play together’ and everybody in the media saying that one of us gotta go,” Tatum said at the time. “We just had a talk about how we both want to be here, we both want to figure it out.”
Sure enough, they figured it out. The Celtics defeated the Heat in Game 7 and Tatum earned the inaugural Larry Bird Trophy as Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
After the win, Tatum shared an embrace with Brown and delivered the perfect line.
“They said we couldn’t play together!” Tatum said.
Suffice to say, Tatum and Brown have proven the naysayers wrong.
The next step is an NBA Finals showdown vs. the Golden State Warriors, who have been to the Finals in six of the last eight seasons. A major test for the Celtics’ young stars, but there’s little doubt at this point the duo is up for the challenge.
Game 1 is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET on Thursday. For the full Finals schedule, go here.
