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Boston Celtics win 2024 NBA Finals, Jayson Tatum earns 1st ring
Jayson Tatum
Elsa/Getty imagesThe Boston Celtics won the 2024 NBA Finals and made 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 and breaking a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jayson Tatum led the way for the Celtics with 31 points, earning his first championship ring.
As green and white confetti fell on him, Tatum, 26, celebrated on the floor of Boston’s TD Garden with his son Deuce6.
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“This is a surreal feeling,” Tatum said in his post-game interview with ESPN’s Lisa Zouters. “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 a position where I can maximize my God-given ability, to surround myself 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 rebounding from a blowout loss to the Mavericks in Game 4, a game Boston lost 122-84.
“We’ve been responding all year,” Tatum said. “This is no different. We owed that to our audience, our fans. It’s been a long journey.
Jaylen Brown holds up the Celtics’ NBA championship trophy.
(Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)Tatum’s teammate Jaylen Brownwho 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 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 all the way.”
The 27-year-old Brown was selected third overall by the Celtics in 2016. When Salters asked him how he could rise to the occasion in the final, Brown said: “My faith is in the highest. I just believe in my teammates, my coaching staff. Just be grateful. I have been grateful for every moment, every opportunity. I never hung my head.”
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It was also a big night for the Celtics head coach Joe Mazzullawho won his first NBA championship in his second season as Boston’s head coach.
“We have the best fans in the world,” 35-year-old Mazzulla told Salters. “There’s nothing better than representing the Celtics.”
When asked if he could live up to the team’s high expectations throughout the season, Mazzulla said, “You get very few opportunities in life to be great.”
“You get very few opportunities in life to take ownership and responsibility of what these banners are,” he continued, “and all those great people, all the great players that came here. If you have an opportunity in life, you just have to take the bull by the horns and you just have to own it. Our guys owned it.”
