“They said we couldn’t play together…” Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown scoffed at the idea after taking the Boston Celtics to the NBA Finals, where they want to prove their worth. Thursday.

“They can’t coexist,” said former Boston Bruins center Kendrick Perkins, who was on Boston’s roster when the latter won its 17th title in 2008 on Jan. 7, the day after the team Massachusetts was defeated in New York. losing a 25-point lead over the Knicks.

He was not alone in calling for the departure of one of the two young stars to bring the green team’s hands back into the rotation after he faltered in eleventh place in the East Region, where he returned to claim the title.

But for Brad Stevens, the head of basketball operations who stepped down from coaching this season for Nigerian native Aimee Odoka, things look different with two players he knows well as “their condition never bothers me” as he focuses on attracting Derek White. from the San Antonio Spurs instead of Dennis Schroeder from Germany. Six months later, he seemed to be right.

However, it would be wrong to say that the combination of Brown (25) and Tatum (24) was a good one, two talents that can reach individual levels.

– “We got close” –

“All teams know that we are going to get past Jason and Gaylen in front, and they have learned ways to stop them. But these guys don’t want to tell anyone about it. playmaker Marcus Smart, the Celtics’ third-highest scoring player.

Those observations paid off: six months later, Boston’s game was turned on its head, and they finished the regular season in second place in the Eastern Conference.

“It all helped us find a solution and not shy away from our responsibilities,” Tatum said Sunday after the Miami Heat were eliminated from the Eastern Conference Finals.

A decisive Game 7 against the Miami Heat epitomized a collective start for the Celtics, with JJ scoring 24 points each and a pass-seeking smart adding 20.

This trio has brought 75% of the points to his team, which this season compensated for two defeats in the Eastern Conference – from Cleveland in 2018 and Miami in 2020.

– “what are you waiting for?” –

“This setback helped us move forward. We learned and reacted differently after a similar situation,” explains winger Tatum, an excellent shooter and lover of the late Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

A player from Boston imitating a former player of the Lakers rival club, with whom they share the highest titles? Boston fans will not care if Tatum manages to give him the first title since 2008 and the eighteenth in his history, thereby monopolizing the titles, in particular, at the expense of the Lakers.

The JJ duo could also write their own page in Celtics history by playing off old-timers Bob Cosey, Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Paul Pierce…

No one climbed to the top alone, and not always their path was strewn with roses. Cosey regretted not “doing more” to support Russell in his fight against racism, while Baird and McHale had no chemistry despite sharing the same goal.

“Why wait? There is talent, there is a work ethic, there is an opportunity for both of them to become better leaders,” coach Odoka said when he took office last summer.