Jaylen Brown is taking it all in after winning his first NBA championship - The Boston Globe (2024)

Brown has taken eight years to get his deserved respect as a star in this league, and even the full respect of those in this city. The boos were loud when majority governor Wyc Grousbeck announced Brown’s name as the Celtics’ 2016 first-round pick to a group of season ticket-holders at a draft party.

The criticism followed Brown all the way into this season when he felt backlash for signing his five-year, $304 million extension last summer. And it took the best season of his career and digging deep into his skill set to become a plus defender and eradicate the negativity.

The sojourn to NBA champion even made the expressive Brown speechless. There have been perceptions about arrogance, about whether he embraced Boston, or whether he was a franchise-caliber player.

Winning quiets all of those concerns.

“I absolutely can’t [put it into words], man,” he said. “Just the story and the journey is awesome. You know, just being drafted here in Boston, like a lot of the people probably didn’t watch me play in the Pac-12 at Cal. It led to a lot of people feeling a way about that.

“I just came in and kept my head down and told myself, ‘I’m going to just keep working.’ And to be here in this moment now, through all the years, through all the doubt, through all of the ups and downs, through all of the verdicts, through all of the everything, it just makes the story that much sweeter.”

During Friday’s victory parade, Brown donned a T-shirt that read, “State Your Source,” a request he made on social media to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who stated a “source” told him Brown is not marketable because he’s difficult to deal with.

After the Game 5 win, Brown further expressed his admiration for teammate Jayson Tatum. The two are close but they are different. They have a high respect for each other and they have had their relationship constantly challenged — again, until this championship.

“But I can’t even put it into words. Like, it just feels great,” Brown said.

“Just our growth together. We’ve been through a lot. We’ve been playing together for seven years now. We’ve been through a lot, the losses, the expectations. The media have said all different types of things: We can’t play together, we are never going to win. We heard it all. But we just blocked it out, and we just kept going. I trusted him. He trusted me. And we did it together.

“To get to this point and share that experience with JT is just awesome, you know what I mean? It’s amazing, and it feels great.”

As the offseason begins and players go on their separate journeys, there will be questions about whether the Celtics can do this again. Their main core is back, and Tatum will sign a maximum contract extension this summer. Nothing is promised, and the road will definitely be tougher, but the Celtics are primed for more deep playoff runs and perhaps more championships.

Tatum and Brown will be the central figures in that quest.

“I think we have an opportunity. I think we definitely have a window,” Brown said. “We take it one day at a time. We definitely have to make sure we stay healthy. But, you know, we’ll enjoy the summer, enjoy the moment, and then we get right back to it next year.

“I mean, it still kind of feels unreal. It feels like there’s another game or something tomorrow. But, you know, I can’t tell you enough about our group and our coaching staff. They were great all season long. They prepared us for these moments.”

ETC.

Mavericks not

quite there yet

The Mavericks entered the Finals against the Celtics the vogue pick to pull off the upset. Before the series began, Luka Doncic was considered the best player in the world, Kyrie Irving was in the midst of a renaissance, and the bench was filled with young, talented players who would dominate their counterparts.

After losing in five games, with the Celtics overwhelming them in four of those, the Mavericks are not quite the team we thought they were. They have holes. Doncic needs to get in better shape and get healthy. Irving looked like a player nearing the end of his prime, And P.J. Washington and Derrick Jones Jr. looked like they were ill-prepared for the big moment.

The Mavericks have offseason work to do, and they left Boston feeling that pain. They averaged 99 points in the series and shot 31 percent from the 3-point line. The Celtics undressed them defensively.

“A lot of us — when I say a lot of us, excluding the people in the locker room, didn’t have us here,” said Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, “and so to be able to start the playoffs in LA, to start the playoffs in Oklahoma, to start the playoffs in Minnesota, to understand that that’s not easy to do.

“I thought the group did a great job. Yes, we lost, 4-1, but I thought the group fought against the Celtics and just, unfortunately, we just couldn’t make shots when we had to, or we turned the ball over and they took full advantage of that.”

The Western Conference is treacherous, and the Mavericks will be hard-pressed to return to the Finals. The Thunder have already improved by acquiring Alex Caruso, the Nuggets will return healthy and angry about their second-round elimination, and the Timberwolves will return smarting from their loss in the conference finals. The offseason has begun, and the Mavericks have work to do to upgrade their roster.

“There’s a lot of positives in this run that we were on during the playoffs, but also, since March, we’ve been playing basketball at a high level,” Kidd said. “So when we go back to look at some of the stuff, what we can continue to build on and what we can get better at. First year we lose to Golden State, who becomes the world champs, then we lose this year to the world champs in the Boston Celtics. So, not a bad run in two out of three years. So, in between those two years, we get [Dereck Lively] and we get trades that makes the team better, so a lot of positive things.

“We’re a young team, and so this isn’t a team when you look at, you know, do we have to replace some of the older players, it’s we have a core, a young core at that, and so this is an exciting time to be a Mavs fan and to also be a coach for the Mavs.”

Doncic was stellar at times in the Finals, but Jaylen Brown’s defense, along with Doncic constantly complaining to officials and his own lackluster defense, knocked him down a few pegs in the league’s hierarchy. He played hurt during the postseason, but he also has yet to get into premium shape for a prolonged period.

“He’s one of the best players in the world, and so I think the biggest thing for him is that we all would like to be healthy, but there’s going to be bumps and bruises along the way,” Kidd said. “So, for him at the age of 25 to get to the Finals, to be playing his basketball at the level that he’s playing is, now it’s just being consistent, and I think we all would say he led the league in scoring.

“He also has won, so now it’s just a matter of being consistent and, again, always being in the talk for MVP because when you have one of the best players in the world, you should be always fighting for a championship.”

One argument in Kidd’s favor is the Mavericks haven’t been together that long. This team missed the playoffs — intentionally — last season in the initial pairing of Doncic and Irving. The Mavericks signed Grant Williams to supplement their bench, but that was a failure, so they acquired Washington and then Wizards center Daniel Gafford to change the complexion of their defense. It was effective, but the Mavericks still showed their limitations. They lack shooting. Gafford and Lively are limited offensively. Washington and Jones may not be championship-caliber complements.

“I think it’s just time, being able to go through it, to get to know each other a little bit better on the court and off the court,” Kidd said. “So, I think the more time that these guys are around each other, the better they’re going to be next year. Again, five months without a training camp. This season started in Abu Dhabi, and it’s been going on for a long time. So for this group to spend time together, to fail, and to understand what it feels like to fail and also to see what failure is and then how do we get better and learn from that. I think I’ve got a great group of young men who will be hungry this summer and will come back ready to play at a high level.”

Irving was gracious enough to hug many of his former Celtics teammates and a couple of coaches before he exited the floor late in Game 5. He watched Jayson Tatum and Brown develop into All-Stars, and now champions. At 32, he has to wonder whether he’ll make it back to the Finals.

“I think when you look at [the Celtics’] journey for seven years, there’s been ups, there’s been learning experiences for them with winning and losing, and so understanding for us,” Irving said. “We’ve been together for five months, some of us, so this is a really positive journey that we’ve been on here, and we’ll look at what we can do as we get to the Finals, just understanding we have to play our best basketball. Unfortunately, Boston was better than us in this series and they won the championship.”

Irving appears settled in Dallas, but the Mavericks are going to need to add talent. The West is very competitive. Irving is still a high-level scorer, but his Finals performance — 41.4 percent shooting, 27.6 percent from the 3-point line — lends to the theory he may no longer be a No. 2 option. He acknowledges the Mavericks have some more experiences to endure to become a championship club. They won’t happen overnight.

“It’s easy to get to that point when you have no other choice but to look at your partner or your teammates and say that we’re going to do this and we’re going to accomplish it, no matter what anyone says,” Irving said.

“Everybody looks at [Michael Jordan] as the prototypical guy, he was 6-0 [in the Finals]. Then you go down the list to Bill Russell and other great guys that have come through this league, but for those guys in particular I think they have had the same trajectory or career path as some of the greatest to play the game, where they have lost early in their career and now they’re at the top of the mountain because they earned their way there and they have been able to learn. So, again, I’m nothing short of proud of those guys, but I think this was a message to my teammates as well, that when we get this opportunity, God willing we get this opportunity again, we work hard, it’s going to be more than just our talent that’s going to get us over that edge.”

Championships are difficult to win, just ask the Celtics. But they had enough chemistry, talent, and desire to overwhelm the Mavericks. Dallas, like 28 other teams, now has to start over.

“It’s going to be more than just somebody scoring 30,” Irving said. “It’s going to take more than just scoring, it’s going to take everything from you. That’s what makes this thing beautiful too is, when you get to the top of that mountain, how do you stay motivated there? Now that they’re there I think those are questions they’re going to have to answer for themselves. But for us, we got to the top of the mountain and we failed, so now we have to start at the bottom, and that should be inspiring. So, grateful that I love what I do, grateful that I get to do it with people that love what they do, too. So it will be a long summer, but looking forward to the start of next season now.”

Layups

The Pacers continued their ascension by signing former NBA champion and All-Star Pascal Siakam to a $189 million contract extension to keep the versatile forward in Indiana long term. The Pacers acquired Siakam at the trade deadline, which helped to push them to the Eastern Conference finals, and their primary offseason goal was to bring him back to a talented core. The only other contract intrigue this summer for the Pacers involves the player option of backup center Jalen Smith, who played sparingly in the playoffs. Obi Toppin will be a restricted free agent if the Pacers submit a qualifying offer . . . Williams was a familiar face in Boston for Game 5 of the Finals. The former Celtic, along with Brandon Miller and Mark Williams, were guests of Celtics assistant Charles Lee, who is expected to be introduced as coach of the Hornets this coming week. Grant Williams shook hands and greeted many of his former teammates on both teams, but he was near the Celtics’ locker room after their victory. Grant was traded to the Mavericks, who then traded him to Charlotte in the deal for Washington. Williams enjoyed a solid half-season with the Hornets and appears part of their future . . . The NBA draft begins Wednesday, and the most compelling story line will be the fate of Bronny James, son of LeBron James. Bronny James has only worked out for the Lakers and Suns. The Lakers have the 17th and 55th picks, and agent Rich Paul has warned that the younger James has no interest in playing on a two-way contract, meaning any interested team would have to use a standard NBA contract on the 19-year-old, who had an uneven freshman season at USC. Paul’s goal could be to scare interested teams off so James falls to the 55th pick and gets a chance to play with his father. There are other clubs who have been interested in working out Bronny James, but he’s declined. Phoenix only has the 22nd pick, and it’s uncertain if the Suns, who desperately need depth, would spend a first-round pick on Bronny James unless there was more incentive. Phoenix needs to build a roster around Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal. LeBron James would become a free agent if he opts out of his contract. But he is expected to return to the Lakers.

Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.