NBA charged Celtics’ top player Jayson Tatum $50k for violating the rules during the game… See more
The Celtics are one of the winningest franchises in NBA history and have been one of the league’s more consistent teams since the Kevin Garnett trade of 2007.
Boston has posted just two losing seasons in the 17 years since the acquisition of Garnett. They missed the playoffs just once in that span and have been a staple of both the Eastern Conference and NBA Finals.
Part of the reason for the Celtics’ success? The relatively smooth transition away from the Garnett and Paul Pierce iteration of the team to the Jayson Tatum-led squad of the present day.
Tatum has blossomed into one of the NBA’s best players since being the No. 3 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. He has logged three consecutive top-six finishes in the league’s MVP voting and has been a staple of the All-NBA first team over that span as well.
Tatum has racked up plenty of accolades in his career, but there’s still one thing eluding the 26-year-old as he looks to cement himself as a top-five player in the league. That would be a championship ring.
Tatum has not yet won an NBA title. The 2023-24 season was the seventh in his career, but he hasn’t yet emerged as a winner on the NBA’s biggest stage.
The Celtics have made the playoffs in each of Tatum’s first seven seasons and appeared in the NBA Finals once. That was in 2022 against the Warriors, a series the Celtics lost 4-2. Tatum averaged 25.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game during Boston’s 2022 postseason run.
