The Boston Celtics begin their 2025 NBA Summer League schedule Friday afternoon with a matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Summer League is where many of the sport’s best players get their first taste of pro basketball, and that’s true of the Celtics’ two best players: Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
The 2017 Summer League was a memorable one for the Celtics. Brown was coming off an impressive rookie campaign, and Boston had just selected Tatum with the No. 3 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Tatum and Brown teamed up together at Summer League in Utah and put on a show, combining for 50 points to help the Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers and No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz.
Boston trailed by as many as 15 points late in the third quarter, but the C’s battled back as Tatum scored eight of his team’s final 10 points, including the go-ahead jumper with less than 10 seconds remaining. Brown then blocked Fultz’s last-second layup to secure the victory.
It was a preview of what was to come in Boston.
“He talks to me all the time,” Tatum said of Brown after that Summer League win in 2017. “He tells me to keep going, and we feed off each other.”
Tatum and Brown weren’t being called “The Jays” at that time, however. They were nicknamed “7-11,” in reference to Brown wearing No. 7 and Tatum wearing No. 11.
You might remember that Avery Bradley was still with the Celtics when Tatum was drafted, and he wore No. 0. Tatum, as a result, originally picked No. 11, and that’s what he wore in Summer League.
But after the Celtics signed Gordon Hayward in free agency in July of 2017, they had to trade Bradley for salary purposes. That move opened up No. 0, which Tatum took and still wears to this day. No. 11 was eventually taken by Kyrie Irving, who Boston acquired later that summer.
Irving and Hayward were expected to help lead the Celtics to Banner 18, but they were unable to deliver on that expectation. Instead, it was Brown and Tatum who ended the Celtics’ title drought with a 2024 NBA Finals triumph over the Dallas Mavericks.
Tatum and Brown have become Celtics legends, and it all started at Summer League.
For more on Tatum and Brown’s first Summer League game together, check out the video player above or watch on YouTube below.
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