On Monday evening, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics finally broke through and won the franchise its first NBA championship in the last 16 years by defeating Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Tatum had far and away the best game of his Finals career in this one, scoring 31 points and dishing out 11 assists, but ultimately the coveted Finals MVP award went to his Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown, who was more consistent throughout the series and also put in some excellent defensive work against Mavericks star Luka Doncic.
It's been a long time coming for the Celtics, who in the past few years had started to garner a reputation as an elite team that just couldn't close the deal when it was time to win in the biggest moments. This reputation of course was mocked mercilessly by fans of rival teams such as the New York Knicks, and Tatum and his shoe brand Nike were sure to take a dig back at the Knicks' faithful earlier this week via a new billboard outside of Madison Square Garden celebrating the Celtics' championship victory.
(Via ClutchPoints on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter, courtesy of @arifrommanhattan.)
https://x.com/ClutchPoints/status/1803817851712590305
The billboard was appropriately situated right above a Footlocker store not far from Madison Square Garden and will likely be viewed by plenty of salty Knicks fans who are not thrilled that their team's biggest rivals are now officially NBA champions.
Can the Celtics repeat?
In theory, there's no reason why the Celtics shouldn't once again be hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy around this time in 2025. Boston figures to bring back all of its key pieces for next year, including Tatum, who is likely to ink the largest contract in NBA history later on this offseason, as well as Derrick White, who is also due for a lucrative extension this summer.
Of course, Jaylen Brown is already under contract for the long term, as is Jrue Holiday, who signed an extension with the team shortly before the playoffs started and immediately showed why that was a good investment by putting together several huge performances throughout the Celtics' title run.
It should be noted that the Celtics did have a remarkably easy path to get to the NBA Finals, arguably the path with the least obstacles in modern NBA history, as every team they faced in the Eastern Conference portion of the bracket–the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Indiana Pacers–all had their best player miss either the entirety of or significant portions of those respective series. Still, the Celtics were going to be the heavy favorites over any of those teams either way.
In any case, the Celtics now have a long offseason of celebrating to embark on, while Tatum will take his talents overseas to try to help Team USA compete for Olympic glory in Paris later this summer. The 2024-25 season is slated to get underway in late October after the schedule is released in August.
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