Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown settled the only debate that matters

There always needs to be something up for debate. When it comes to these Celtics and their two stars, there was plenty of fodder this spring.

Was Jayson Tatum an MVP-caliber player? Would he ever be? Was Jaylen Brown actually Boston’s best player now? Was Tatum jealous of Brown winning Eastern Conference Finals MVP?

Are these Celtics actually dominant, or did they just have an easy path? Are they an all-time team? Will they win multiple titles and become a dynasty?

At some point along the way, we all stopped debating the question that had been the only one that mattered in previous years: Could Tatum and Brown win a championship together? Were they really the chosen two who would raise banner No. 18 to the TD Garden rafters?

We stopped debating it because this championship, sealed with a 106-88 victory in Monday night’s Game 5 at TD Garden, felt like a foregone conclusion for weeks, if not months. In the regular season, the Celtics clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference by 14 games, and the best record in the NBA by seven. In the playoffs, they went 16-3. Even a blowout loss in Game 4 in Dallas only led to mild concern.

It became boring, even silly, to continue to debate whether Tatum and Brown could win it all, so the debates shifted to other topics.

But make no mistake: That was a real debate as recently as last summer. After the Celtics lost to a less talented Heat team in the conference finals last spring, with Brown in particular having a tough series, Brown’s name once again surfaced in what had become annual trade rumors – this time for Damian Lillard, or even Bradley Beal.

That debate ended this year because Tatum and Brown made sure it ended. Obviously, they didn’t do it alone. Brad Stevens did a terrific job reshaping the roster with trades for Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, both of whom fit like a glove. Joe Mazzulla grew in his second year as head coach. Derrick White took on a bigger role and had the best season of his career. Al Horford shifted into a smaller role but continued to provide necessary depth and veteran leadership.

But the Celtics were, are and will continue to be built around Tatum and Brown. The team goes as they go. Raising banner 18 was dependent on them growing into championship players and a championship duo.

They did. Maybe it took longer than some fans and media wanted. Maybe their careers haven’t always been smooth sailing. Maybe their losses this postseason – all three of them – still raised questions for some.

But when the final buzzer sounded Monday night at TD Garden, Tatum and Brown were NBA champions. They had gotten over the hump. They had learned the lessons they needed to learn from past failures. They had made sure that one loss in Game 4 didn’t snowball into two by slamming the door shut on Dallas.

"All of those moments where we came up short, we felt like we let the city down, let ourselves down, all of that compiled is how we get to this moment," Brown said. "And it makes it feel even that much better that we had to go through all that journey, the heartbreak, the embarrassment, the loss, to get to the mountaintop."

The word “sacrifice” was used a lot around these Celtics this season. Often it was used in connection to Holiday, who took far fewer shots than he had in Milwaukee or New Orleans, or Horford, who came off the bench for the first time in his career.

But Tatum and Brown sacrificed, too. They moved the ball more and played better team basketball, sacrificing personal statistics in the process. The kind of my-turn, your-turn isolation offense that got them in trouble in the past reared its head far less often.

Both took fewer shots per game than they had in any of the previous three seasons. Tatum scored 3.2 fewer points per game than last season. He could have tried to score more in an effort to build off last year’s fourth-place MVP finish and chase individual glory, but didn’t. He dropped out of the top five in this year’s voting.

Brown scored 3.6 fewer points per game. Matching or exceeding last year’s 26.6 points per game would have helped him make a second straight All-NBA Team. He did not make an All-NBA Team this season. He didn’t have “time to give a f***” as he chased an NBA title instead.

Here are the statistics where they were better: Both set career highs in assists, a reflection of their better ball movement and increased selflessness. Brown had the best shooting percentage of his career and Tatum the best since his rookie year (when he was taking half as many shots per game), a reflection of their better shot selection. Both had the best offensive ratings of their career and their best defensive ratings in three years. Most importantly, they won more games than they ever had – in both the regular season and postseason.

When Tatum’s shot wasn’t falling this postseason – which, yes, was the case a little too often – he found other ways to impact the game, like when he had 12 assists in Game 2 of the Finals or when he pulled down double-digit rebounds 12 times during this run, something every other Celtic did a total of five times combined. He had the best defensive rating of the Celtics’ top seven players in minutes this postseason and the best plus/minus in the league.

When Brown was the hotter hand, Tatum let him take over, like in Game 3 of the Finals, when Tatum’s 20 first-half points gave way to Brown’s 24 in the second half. The reverse was true as well. After Brown drained a corner 3 to send Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals to overtime (maybe the biggest shot of this run), he didn’t feel the need to remain the star in OT and instead deferred to a Tatum who “finally woke up” and scored 10 of the Celtics’ 16 points in the extra period.

Both were great in Monday’s title-clinching Game 5, especially Tatum, who led all players with 31 points and 11 assists while also pulling down eight rebounds and recording two steals. Brown went for 21 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals.

“I'm so proud of Jaylen, and I'm so proud of Jayson,” Al Horford said. “Those two guys continue to take steps forward. People all year criticizing them, all that expectation, all that pressure. They did it. And they've done it at a young age. They led our group. I'm just very proud of those guys, and to put everything aside and focus on winning.”

Fittingly, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla had Tatum and Brown check out of the game together, with 1:21 remaining and Boston leading by 20. They were greeted by a standing ovation seven years in the making. They each hugged Mazzulla, then the rest of their teammates and coaches, and, finally, each other.

“To get to this point and share that experience with JT is just awesome,” Brown said. “It's amazing. It feels great.”

A few minutes later, Brown was awarded the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award, adding to his Eastern Conference Finals MVP and more than compensating for his lack of individual recognition in the regular season. He did not consider it an individual award, though.

“I share this with my brothers, and my partner-in-crime, Jayson Tatum,” Brown said. “He was with me the whole way, so we share this s*** together.”

Surely, Brown winning these MVP awards over Tatum will be used to drive certain debates among those who still want to divide them, just like the Celtics’ Game 4 loss or their “easy path” will be used to lessen this team’s accomplishments. There must always be something to debate, after all.

“The doubters, they may be quiet now, but they will be back,” Brown said. “They will be back next year with something else to say. I'll embrace that moment the same and get after it yet again.”

He’s right. We know what the next debates will be: Do they have what it takes to be a dynasty? Are they a disappointment if they “only” win one?

So it goes. One thing that can’t be debated anymore: Tatum and Brown are NBA champions. They could and did do it together. They were and are the leaders this storied franchise needed to raise banner 18.

“We've been through a lot,” Brown said, summing it all up. “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.”