The Boston Celtics won this year’s NBA championship behind Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
In the past, several pundits said the Celtics couldn’t win it all with Brown and Tatum leading the way.
It’s a good thing Brad Stevens didn’t listen to the outside noise, both as a coach and as an exec.
According to NBA insider Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, Stevens was the one who decided not to pursue trades for Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler, Paul George and Anthony Davis.
“More than anyone in the organization, Stevens is responsible for the decision to keep giving Brown and Tatum time to build their relationship and grow into the leaders of the franchise,” Shelburne wrote. “He was the coach who signed off on drafting each of them, then the executive entrusted with building the right team around them. He was the decision-maker on all of the trade offers that came in from around the league as teams hoped Boston would lose patience with one or both of them.
“He was the man, sources said, who said no or decided not to pursue trades for Paul George (2017), Jimmy Butler (2018-19), Kawhi Leonard (2019) Anthony Davis (2019) and Kevin Durant (2022).”
George was traded from the Indiana Pacers to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017, Butler was traded by the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Philadelphia 76ers in 2018, Leonard was traded by the San Antonio Spurs to the Toronto Raptors in 2018, Davis was traded by the New Orleans Pelicans to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019 and Durant was traded by the Brooklyn Nets to the Phoenix Suns in 2022.
The Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks in this year’s NBA Finals in five games. Brown was named Finals MVP.
Boston’s core of Tatum, Brown, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White isn’t going anywhere. The rest of the NBA will have to go through the Celtics for the foreseeable future to win the championship.
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