Clearly Upset Jayson Tatum Says He Doesn’t Care Jaylen Brown Won Finals MVP

The Boston Celtics won their 18^th NBA championship in franchise History on Monday night.

Following the championship trophy ceremony, Celtics star Jaylen Brown earned his first-ever NBA Finals MVP. Despite being widely viewed as the ‘Robin’ to Jayson Tatum’s ‘Batman’ throughout his career, Brown was clearly Boston’s best player in the Finals.

Brown put up nearly 21 points per game on 44 percent shooting from the field throughout his team’s series with the Dallas Mavericks. He also routinely took on the toughest defensive assignments.

Tatum, meanwhile, averaged 22.2 points per Game on 39 percent shooting. While he maintained a marginal advantage in scoring output for the series, the reality is that he had two really solid efforts in the Finals and three absolute stinkers.

Brown was consistently the Celtics’ best player throughout the Finals and was correctly rewarded for his efforts by earning seven out of the 11 available votes for Finals MVP. Even Brown’s teammates agreed that he was their best player.

After Brown earned his trophy, a clearly salty Tatum was asked about missing out on the award.

“First of all, congrats to him,” Tatum said.

“First of all, congrats to him… Extremely happy for him… The main goal for us was to win a championship. We didn’t care who got the Finals MVP… I need him through this journey. And he needs me.”

Jayson Tatum on Jaylen Brown 🗣️

(via @danield1214) pic.twitter.com/d76BYmFmWX

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 18, 2024

“Well deserved, extremely happy for him. This is a hell of an accomplishment. The main goal for us was to win a championship. We didn’t care who got Finals MVP.

“I know that I need him through this journey, and he needs me. So, it was great seeing him have that moment and share that moment with him. I’m extremely happy for him, well deserved. That was big time, he earned it.”

For a lot of this series Tatum was the Celtics’ third or fourth best player. There is a case to be made that he was almost a hinderance to his team’s efforts at certain parts of the series.

That being said, Boston wouldn’t have made the Finals if not for Tatum’s efforts earlier in the year – so clearly he is a valuable part of the puzzle.

Brown was definitely the deserving NBA Finals MVP, though. No ands, ifs or ors about it.

Carlos Garcia

A longtime Sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB Games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.