Jayson Tatum has never missed the NBA Playoffs in his career, but as the years of playoff appearances without a championship mounted, questions grew louder about whether he and Jaylen Brown could lead the Boston Celtics to a title together.
On Monday night, they put those questions to rest for good with a dominant five-game Finals win over the Dallas Mavericks to bring Boston its 18th NBA championship, but the first for the storied franchise in 16 years. The emotions poured out of Tatum on the court as the final buzzer sounded, as he bent over, head in his hands, realizing the weight that had finally been pulled off of him.
At the team’s championship celebration later that night, Tatum hopped on the microphone and addressed all those questions about what would happen if he and Brown never won a title with the Celtics, borrowing Kanye West’s line from his legendary Grammys speech, saying “I guess we’ll never know.”
Jayson Tatum dropping a Kayne quote😂
"Everybody was wondering what would happen if we didn't win. I guess we'll never know." pic.twitter.com/buL1pTVRMt
— CelticsMuse (@CelticsMuse) June 18, 2024
Tatum’s teammates loved it, especially Jaylen Brown, and Tatum quite literally dropped the mic and walked off, Larry O’Brien in hand, to continue his celebration. The Celtics will take a few days to celebrate their title down in Miami, enjoying some beach time before they come back to Boston for their parade on Friday. We’ll see if Tatum breaks this back out on the parade stage or if he finds any more quotes to borrow for his speech in front of the Celtics faithful.