Jaylen Brown was named the 2024 Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP after the Boston Celtics clinched their 18th title Monday night against the Dallas Mavericks. Brown received seven of the 11 MVP votes, with the other four going to teammate Jayson Tatum. The Boston Celtics star signed the biggest contract in NBA history last offseason, and he has more than lived up to it this postseason. He also won the Larry Bird Eastern Conference finals MVP award last round as the Celtics swept the Indiana Pacers to reach the Finals. Now, he has become the first player in the relatively brief history of that award to also take home Finals MVP.
Brown averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5 assists in the Finals victory over the Dallas Mavericks. He was also the primary defender on Luka Doncic, and while Doncic did post large individual numbers, Boston's willingness to let defenders like Brown handle him one-on-one made it possible for them to shut down the Maverick role players. Brown hit a number of huge shots throughout the Finals. His mid-range jumper with roughly one minute remaining in Game 3, for instance, was possibly the dagger that won that contest for Boston.
30 BALLL 😤 pic.twitter.com/fEiwxvMT9A
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 13, 2024
This was Brown's second trip to the Finals, and in his first, his below-average shooting was a factor in Boston's 2022 defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors. He hit just 43.1% of his field goals in that series along with 34% of his 3-pointers, and as Tatum struggled as well, the Celtics couldn't score enough to keep up with the Warriors. This time around, that was no issue. Boston got offense from just about everyone, and if Brown needed redemption after the 2022 series, he certainly earned it against Dallas.
After Game 1 of the Finals, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd called Brown the best player on the Celtics. At the time, it was widely considered to be a mind game, a way to try to stir up some controversy in Boston's locker room ahead of a critical game. Tatum is widely considered the best Celtics player. He earned First-Team All-NBA honors this season whereas Brown missed the All-NBA cut entirely.
But this year's Celtics team was built in such a way that it didn't matter who their best player was. At times, it was Tatum. At times, it was Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis or Derrick White. But for the bulk of this series, it was Jaylen Brown. After years of hearing about how he wasn't as good as his co-star, or about how the Celtics should have traded him or shouldn't have paid him, he's silenced the doubters once and for all with an incredible postseason culminating in a Finals MVP award.
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