Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are the most accomplished duo of their NBA generation. There, I’ve said it, and I don’t think it should be all that controversial.
My question, then: Why would anyone want to break the Jays apart?
In nine seasons together, the Boston Celtics teammates have been to five Eastern Conference finals and a pair of NBA Finals, winning the title as a tandem in 2024. What other duo this decade can make those same claims? I’ll wait for your answer.
Just look at the other champions since 2020 …
The NBA’s championship All-Star tandems of the 2020s.
(Ben Rohrbach)
2020 Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James belongs to an older generation, one mostly of mercenaries, jumping from team to team in search of hastily made championships. He found his fourth in L.A. with Anthony Davis, a pairing that lasted five-plus seasons and resulted in the one title, that single Finals appearance and two conference finals.
2021 Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton reached two conference finals and won a championship in almost 12 seasons together. The Bucks traded an injury-plagued Middleton, and Antetokounmpo’s team was no better for it.
2022 Golden State Warriors: Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were the duo that persisted in LeBron’s generation, and it bore four championships, though they began their run before Tatum and Brown were even drafted, winning first in 2015. This was their last, and it came courtesy of these Celtics in a series Tatum and Brown will rue.
2023 Denver Nuggets: Out West, where the sledding is harder, Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray have been to two West finals and won this title in 10 seasons together. Any trade in Denver but Jokić is on the table this summer, including one of Murray.
2024 Boston Celtics: Tatum and Brown, they did it. And when Brown received the Finals MVP trophy, he said, “I share this with my brothers and my partner in crime, Jayson Tatum. He was with me the whole way, so we share this s*** together.”
2025 Oklahoma City Thunder: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams won a title in just their third season together, and — so long as Williams gets healthy (and even if he doesn’t) — they could win another this year, meaning the NBA may belong to a new generation already, one dominated by OKC and the San Antonio Spurs.
But what are the Celtics supposed to do? Pass the torch? Tatum is 28 years old, and Brown is 29. There have rarely, if ever, been a championship duo this accomplished through nine seasons — and still short of 30 years old. The ones who have sustained have won multiple championships, and that is the challenge for this Boston tandem.
Really, what Tatum and Brown have done together puts them in conversations people are not comfortable talking about, if only because they have only won one championship (in an era of parity, mind you). Still, their playoff record, but for those championships, is comparable only to the greatest All-Star tandems in NBA history.
The NBA’s most accomplished All-Star tandems (since the 1976 merger).
(Ben Rohrbach)
Michael Jordan was 33 years old after nine seasons together with Pippen, who was 31 at the same point. They lasted one more season on the Chicago Bulls, winning a sixth title, before Jordan retired for a second time and Pippen exited in free agency.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was 40 years old after Magic Johnson’s ninth season. Larry Bird and Kevin McHale were shells of themselves to end nine seasons together, as was Isiah Thomas, whose torn Achilles shortened his partnership with Joe Dumars.
Meanwhile, Tatum returned from a torn Achilles this season to show he was well on his way to being a perennial member of the All-NBA First Team, all while Brown performed at a level worthy of the All-NBA First Team. That’s right: Tatum and Brown remain two of the, let’s say, 10 most talented basketball players on the planet.
So, it is instructive that the tandems that persisted in more recent years — Curry and Thompson; Tim Duncan and Tony Parker — went on to win an additional title together after nine seasons. Stick with it, and all that collective experience may pay off again.
Hey, these guys are pretty good!
(Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant are a cautionary tale. Their egos were too big to coexist beyond eight seasons together. The Celtics do not appear to have that problem, as the relationship between Tatum and Brown is as professional as it gets.
So, why, then, does it seem like some people want to see an end to this partnership? Part of it is that people misconstrue comments Brown has made on Twitch — that this past season was his favorite, not the championship campaign — as some hidden desire to lead his own team, rather than for what it was, which was a personal feeling.
(I don’t want to get too into the Twitch stuff, or Tracy McGrady’s comments, which he walked back. Just know this: Both Brown and Celtics executive Brad Stevens have fervently denied any “frustrations” between him and the organization and vice versa.)
Part of it, I’m convinced, is a desire to see the Celtics fail. Who wants to see the NBA’s only 18-time champions win again? Certainly not any of the other 29 teams.
And some of it, surely, is the availability of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Every team in the league will kick the tires on the two-time MVP. Boston’s best package would have to include Brown. People start naturally connecting dots they themselves have created.
But is it even wise to trade Brown for Antetokounmpo? The Milwaukee Bucks star is two years older and far more of an injury concern, even if he is a better overall talent. We have no idea how Antetokounmpo would mesh with Tatum, both on and off the court, under Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla’s culture. It would probably blend well.
The Celtics know how great Tatum and Brown can be. They understand that, with the proper pieces around them — namely a better big and another playmaker — they can contend for another title. There is proof of concept, and there is also plenty of proof that, when you keep these battle-tested duos together, they can continue to deliver.
Duncan won his last title at age 37. Curry won his at 33. You’re telling me Tatum and Brown, together, can’t compete for another one, or more, as they age into their 30s? It is on ownership to spend to construct a more serious contender around the duo.
It may not happen every season. It will not happen every season, especially one in which Tatum tears his Achilles, or another in which he was recovering from surgery. But they can win again if given the chance. History tells us so. Their history tells us so.
And isn’t that the better story, these two great teammates who stuck it out, together, and found their way back to the mountaintop? I am too often guilty of rooting for the better story, but in this case what would swapping Antetokounmpo for Brown get them beyond uncertainty? More injury concern? At best, a less meaningful title, one that does not stamp their 2024 championship but instead will serve as a rebuke of it.
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