Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been together for seven seasons. Boston Celticsthey’ve faced a lot of skepticism about whether they would fit together as ball-handling wings. Both have flashed different levels of greatness at different times, but were their skill sets too overlapping and not enough to build a championship team as a pair?
Celtics 2024 NBA Championship Winner While the answer to that question is a definite “no,” their nearly decade as a duo has raised questions about the pair’s chemistry. media and fan The Celtics had no intention of trading Brown, instead continuing to invest (albeit somewhat controversially) in the duo, most recently signing Brown to the richest contract in NBA history last summer.
Doing so may have seemed like an easy decision in hindsight, but after the confetti had flown and the Celtics celebrated their 18th championship in franchise history and Brown hoisted his NBA Finals MVP award, the stats broadcast for those watching at home highlighted just how much unprecedented patience Boston had shown with the Brown-Tatum duo.Photo by Tim Bontemps of ESPN):
For Tatum and Brown, the 107 games they played together before winning a title are the most by any duo in NBA history prior to winning their first championship.
This is an amazing fact, as it is extremely rare for two NBA players to be on the same team.
- Good enough to justify staying together for so long, and…
- They are good enough to maintain credibility even though they have yet to win a title together.
It remains to be seen if this record will ever be broken, but with the constant turnover in today’s NBA, it seems unlikely. Brown and Tatum’s long-awaited success may encourage more GMs to be patient with different star pairings, but if not, this is likely a record Brown and Tatum can hold for a long time.
