On Monday evening, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics broke through and won their first NBA championship in 16 years with a blowout game 5 victory over Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. Tatum put together arguably his most complete performance of this entire postseason on Monday evening, consistently finding seems in a malleable Mavericks defense, although ultimately it was his Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown who got the NBA Finals MVP honors due to his consistent performance throughout the series.
One person who has bizarrely been a critic of the Celtics throughout this season is none other than ESPN sports media personality Kendrick Perkins, who ironically enough was a member of the last Celtics championship team all the way back in 2008.
However, after the Boston victory on Monday evening, Perkins was a good sport and took to his account on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter, to admit that he was wrong in doubting his former team.
“I didn’t believe they could get it done with Joe (Mazzulla's) style of play,” wrote Perkins. “I thought that Tatum and Brown couldn’t do it together They proved me wrong and 16 years later after I help deliver Banner 17 this @celtics team just completed the mission in dominating fashion to bring Banner 18 to the City of Boston. Much Credit to Brad Stevens for putting this all together Carry the hell on… Carry the hell on…”
Perkins also took the time to give Jaylen Brown his flowers for his performance in the Finals.
“No all NBA and swept the playoff MVPs. Legendary! Jaylen “Appreciated” Brown” wrote Perkins, referencing the fact that Brown also won the Eastern Conference MVP honors for his performance vs the Indiana Pacers in that series.
Just how great was this Celtics team?
Every statistic and analytical data point available points to this Celtics team as being unequivocally one of the greatest teams to ever step onto a basketball court. Boston won games this year by an average of over 11 points per contest and led by at least 20 points in 50 out of their 101 games played.
The Celtics finished the season with a record of 80-21, including 64-18 in the regular season, and breezed through the playoffs, not having any of their series extend past a fifth game, becoming the first team since the 2016-17 Kevin Durant led Golden State Warriors to accomplish that feat.
The eye test would also support the notion that this Celtics squad is all-time level great. Brown and Tatum are without question two of the top 15, if not ten best players in the league, and Boston's supporting cast features three more top 40 level players in Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, and Kristaps Porzingis, not to mention half court flamethrower Payton Pritchard coming off of the bench.
The scary part for the rest of the league is that the Celtics will be able to essentially run this roster back the exact same way in 2024-25 before the financial situation gets a bit more dicey the following year.
In any case, the Celtics left little doubt about their greatness in 2023-24.
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