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Time.
The one player the Celtics have been missing these past eight years has been time. It takes time to mature into a championship-ready team. You can’t reach the mountaintop of professional sports without losing first, and Boston has done plenty of losing, sometimes on the biggest stage.
Look no further to see the Celtics’ growth than May 27, and how in 365 days, Boston has become a different team.
All thanks to time.
“We feel like we’re a different team than we were last year, and the year before that,” Jaylen Brown said. “Time has gone by, experience has been gained, and I think we are ready to put our best foot forward.”
May 27, 2023.
Derrick White infamously tips in an offensive rebound at the buzzer to save the Celtics' season and force a Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Boston would ultimately fall in that game at home to Miami, and in doing so change the trajectory of the Celtics franchise as we know it.
May 27, 2024.
White buries a triple from the corner with less than a minute to go that ultimately sends Boston to its second NBA Finals in the last three years.
The same day, but a year later, White’s game-winner marked the bookends of what is an entirely different Celtics team. One that is four wins away from the ultimate goal, Banner 18.
“It’s a pretty good day I guess,” White said. “I mean, a lot of credit to the team. They always push me, and just seeing them work every day makes me want to work harder, which pushes me to just keep getting better.”
The prime example of that growth has been the $300 million man, Jaylen Brown. Signing the richest contract in NBA history came with a lot of trepidation from Celtics fans — and for good reason. Brown was coming off a disastrous Game 7 performance in the ECF, where he had eight turnovers and failed to step up with Jayson Tatum injured.
Brown never ran away from all the hate he received over that summer; instead, he relished it. He used it as motivation to have his best season of his career, and all the while still not receiving the attention he deserved. Brown was held off the All-NBA list a year after being named to the second team.
“I just embrace all forms of negativity,” Brown said. “Some stuff I don’t understand; it ain’t meant for me to understand. I am who I am... I’m grateful that I’m able to be in this position, and the energy is about to shift.”
Monday night, he received one of the awards that matters the most — Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all, I don’t ever win shit,” Brown said. “I was just happy we won.”
Brown knows he’ll never be the face of this franchise; that position will always belong to Tatum. At times over the past seven years, that has been the team’s biggest struggle. Brown and Tatum not being able to play off each other. Now, with time and growth, they have become the most formidable duo in the league. Brown has a lot to do with that.
“I think I’m one of the best two-way wings or guards in this league,” Brown said. “As time has gone by and I got to this point... I stopped caring. As long as my team knows my value, my city knows my value, my family. That’s all I really care about.”
Another example of that growth has been the team’s play in the clutch, and its killer instinct.
The Celtics have become known around the league as a team that’ll play with its food. For example, last year when they went six games with a lowly Hawks team, playing seven games with Philadelphia, and going down 3-0 to Miami.
Boston just couldn’t get out of its own way.
This year has been different. A 12-2 postseason record and three clutch wins in the ECF has shown the maturity that the core of Tatum and Brown has been lacking. This year, they’ve been able to learn it, and from a pretty good teacher too, Jrue Holiday.
Holiday’s fingerprints were all over this series and the Celtics’ three clutch wins. Whether it was the inbound pass to Brown in Game 1, the Nembhard steal in Game 3, or the offensive rebound to win Game 4. Holiday has done it all, and he’s the missing piece that has unlocked Boston’s killer instinct.
“Not too many people get a chance to be in the Eastern Conference Finals,” Holiday said. “I know it can be a lot of pressure and buildup, but this is what we play for, this is what the game is about.”
But in the end, none of this will matter if Boston doesn’t win four more games. If it loses, it’ll just end up as another year where it wasn’t ready to get over the hump.
“We understand what we need to do,” Al Horford said. “We need to finish this.”
The Celtics have waited long enough; the pieces of the puzzle are there. It’s time to put it all together.
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