Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla blasts media coverage of Brown-Tatum duo

If anybody in Boston is going to reignite the region's rivalry with ESPN, it's Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.

Even if he's doing so without naming the four-letter network.

With the Celtics back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2022, the talk hasn't been about how the Celtics' status as the best team in the NBA during the regular season has carried on into the postseason. It's instead been about the easy path the Celtics have traveled to get to this point thanks to injuries elsewhere. Or how they're simply not as good as the results would tell you. Some pundits have even gone back to their 'old reliable' of anti-Celtics talking points: the always-alleged-but-never-proven-in-any-respect strife between C's stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

The newest angle on that take came to the table following Boston's four-game sweep of Indiana, with some noticing that Tatum didn't look happy for Brown after Brown won East Finals MVP.

A take that was clowned on by Celtics players, this take also seemed to be the breaking point for Mazzulla, who decided to peel back the curtain on the Brown-Tatum dynamic on Friday.

"That's a really good question and I'm kind of praying about how deep I really wanna get into that because the whole thing about that really pisses me off and I think it's unfair to both of them," Mazzulla, whose team will play the Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals, said of the Brown-Tatum 'tension' that's always talked about by national types. "I think it's stupid that people have to use those two guys' names and use information that they don't know to create clickbait so that they can stay relevant."

In fact, Mazzulla doesn't even know why the Brown-Tatum duo has to be compared like it's two guys who are the exact same, which is something that seemingly only happens with Boston's one-two.

"It's very unfair that [Brown and Tatum] get compared," Mazzulla said. "They're two completely different people. They're two completely different players. They're great teammates. They love each other and they go about winning and they go about their process in different ways. So why they have to always be lumped together is unfair and I think people just use it for their own relativity.

"At the end of the day, [with] those two guys, their relationship is their relationship. They love each other, they push each other every single day in practice, they communicate with each other. But they go about winning differently. They're different. You see other duos around the league that don't have to go through that. And it's because of the platform they have. It's because they've been so successful their entire careers. They've been able to longstand success at a high, high level, so people need them in order to stay relevant."

The spotlight on the relationship between Brown and Tatum will only get brighter as the Celtics try to win their first championship since 2008, and especially after the duo came up short in their 2022 dance with Steph Curry's Golden State Warriors. But when it comes to the discussion on both players and where they fit in Boston, Mazzulla simply wants the discussion to operate with actual information.

"They should not talk on speculation," Mazzulla said of the coverage of Tatum and Brown. "They should get to know them as people before they talk about that stuff. They're two of the greatest teammates and players you could have and it's been an honor to coach both of them. Doesn't mean they have to be the same. It's bullshit. I love both of them and they deserve better."

The Boston Celtics are on the brink of their first NBA Championship since 2008. Their defeat of the Miami Heat, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Indiana Pacers have secured them a spot in the NBA Finals. Who they will face in the NBA Finals has yet to be determined. It will either be the Minnesota Timberwolves or the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas currently has a 3 game to 1 lead in the Western Conference Finals so the chances of the Boston Celtics competing in the NBA Finals against Dallas are pretty good. Either way, we thought it would be fun to look at what our world looked like back in 2008, the last time the Celtics won the NBA Championship.

Let's take a look at the state of the world back in 2008. Stock markets plunged in January amidst news of a potential US recession. A devastating earthquake struck China. It measured 7.9 on the scale in Sichuan China killing an estimated 87,000 people. And we lost a lot of celebrities that year too. Bernie Mac, Heath Ledger, Isaac Hayes, George Carlin and Paul Newman all passed away in 2008.

Now when it comes to the most pop culture and memorable events from that year, we've come up with 6. There is no ranking, just listing what we feel are the most impactful events from that year. Let's take a look at the major events that took place the last time the Celtics won a championship.

Bitcoin was invented in 2008. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency invented by a group of programmers – using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.  It was actually launched in 2009, but invented in 2008.

https://money.usnews.com/investing/articles/the-history-of-bitcoin#:~:text=Open%20An%20Account-,Bitcoin%20was%20the%20first%20cryptocurrency%20created%20and%20is%20now%20the,identity%20has%20never%20been%20verified.

Barack Obama defeated Republican Party nominee John McCain in the election of 2008. Obama became the first black president of the United States and was inaugurated in 2009. Barack Obama was the 44th president. 

Beyonce and Jay Z got married in a secret ceremony on April 4, 2008.  The two had been dating since 2002 after collaborating on their hit song  "03 Bonnie and Clyde." They now have three kids together. 

Iron Man was released May 2 and marks the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark as a billionaire philanthropist who builds a mechanized suit of armor and becomes the superhero Iron Man.

Breaking Bad debuted on AMC in January of 2008. It was an American crime drama series. It aired for five seasons and concluded in September of 2013. Breaking Bad starred Bryan Cranston as Walter White as a high school chemistry who is diagnosed with cancer and turns to making meth to support his family.

From November 5, 2007 to February 12, 2008, all 12,000 film and television screenwriters of the American labor unions went on strike. They wanted increased rates for DVD sales among other things. It lasted for 100 days and eventually ended in February of 2008. 

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/writers-strike-ends-after-100-days