Mazzulla gives impassioned response to scrutiny faced by Tatum-Brown duo

Mazzulla gives impassioned response to scrutiny faced by Tatum-Brown duo originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics eliminated the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals on May 25, giving them 10 days of rest before Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals.

With such a long period between actual games, it was inevitable that some media commentators would bring up silly debates/discussions about the Celtics’ star duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The craziest thing was probably ESPN Rise! show speaking earlier this week about whether Tatum was happy that Brown won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP, even though Tatum was clearly smiling and applauding Brown the entire time as the trophy was presented.

Sure, there’s a lot of air time to fill until the finals, but some of these discussions have just gotten out of hand.

When asked Friday about the scrutiny the Tatum-Brown tandem faces, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla gave an impassioned defense of his two stars.

“It’s a really good question. I’m (thinking) about how deep I want to go into this, because this whole thing really irritates me. And I think it’s really unfair to both of them,” Mazzulla said. at his press conference. “I think it’s stupid that people have to take these two guys’ names and use information they don’t know to create clickbait so they can stay relevant. It’s really unfair for these two to be compared. They’re two completely different people, two completely different players. They are great teammates, they love each other.

“They win and conduct their process in a different way. So why do they always have to be grouped together, I think it’s unfair and people just use it for their own relativity. , their relationship is their relationship. They love each other, they push each other every day in practice. They communicate, but they win differently. each other. They’re different, and you see that other duos in the league don’t have to go through that, and it’s because of the platform they have. It’s because they’ve been very successful throughout their career.

“They have been successful for a long time at a very high level and therefore people need them to stay relevant. They shouldn’t talk about speculation. They should get to know them as people before talking about it. They are two of the best teammates and players you could have, and it was an honor to coach them both.

Mazzulla makes many important points in this response. He’s right about other duos not getting the criticism that Brown and Tatum do. For them to have achieved so much success early in their careers is incredibly impressive.

It’s also true that Tatum and Brown are now at the point in their careers where winning championships needs to start happening, but the constant criticism this duo receives despite having better career resumes than most of the league’s other stars , are impressive.

The best way for Tatum and Brown to silence their critics is to defeat the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals and win the Celtics’ 18th championship. That process begins Thursday, June 6, at TD Garden.

Watch Mazzulla’s entire press conference below: