The Boston Celtics emerged victorious in the 2024 NBA Finals and made some basketball history along the way.
Boston defeated the Dallas Mavericks 106-85 in Game 5 on Monday, June 17, earning the franchise their record 18th NBA title, breaking a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jayson Tatum led the way for the Celtics with 31 points, earning his first championship ring.
With green-and-white confetti falling on top of him, Tatum, 26, celebrated on the floor of Boston’s TD Garden with his son Deuce, 6.
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“This is a surreal feeling,” Tatum said in his post-game interview with ESPN’s Lisa Salters. “We did it. We did it! Oh my God, we did it.”
Tatum continued, “First of all, God is the greatest. Not because we won, but to put me in positions to maximize my God-given ability, to surround me with these guys, my family. This is an incredible feeling. I’m at a loss for words.”
Salters asked Tatum — who was drafted with the third overall pick by the Celtics in 2017 — about bouncing back from a blowout loss to the Mavericks in Game 4, a game which Boston lost 122-84.
“We responded all year,” Tatum said. “This is no different. We owed our crowd, our fans. It’s been a long journey.
Tatum’s teammate Jaylen Brown, who scored 21 points in Game 5, also earned his first NBA championship ring and took home the Bill Russell Award for NBA Finals MVP.
“It was a full team effort,” Brown told Salters after winning the MVP award. “I share this with my brothers and my partner in crime, Jayson Tatum. He was with me the whole way.”
Brown, 27, was selected with the third overall pick by the Celtics in 2016. When asked by Salters about how he was able to rise to the occasion in the Finals, Brown said, “My faith in the most high. Just believing in my teammates, my coaching staff. Just being grateful. I’ve been grateful for every moment, every opportunity. I never hung my head.”
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It was also a big night for Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who won his first NBA championship in his second season as Boston’s head coach.
“We have the best fans in the world,” Mazzulla, 35, told Salters. “There’s nothing better than representing the Celtics.”
When asked about embracing the team’s high expectations all season, Mazzulla said, “You get very few chances in life to be great.”
“You get very few chances in life to carry on the ownership and the responsibility of what these banners are,” he continued, “and all the great people, all the great players that came here. When you have chances in life, you just gotta take the bull by the horns and you gotta just own it. Our guys owned it.”
