Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown attempts to build a legacy

“We just got to know that every game has its own story.” — Jaylen Brown

BOSTON — The story of Game 1, the story of these NBA Finals, is Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown.

Celtics forward Kristaps Porziņģis was a standout storyline with a terrific but unexpected performance after being inactive for more than a month. But Brown was the tone-setter, as he has been for Boston throughout the postseason.

Amid all of the storylines coursing through the NBA Finals, Brown’s is the most compelling. At age 27, he has played not just in the shadows of his teammate, forward Jayson Tatum, but the shadows of Celtics legends whose spirits echo. Twenty-four numbers have been retired, and 17 NBA championship banners hang from the TD Garden rafters — reminders to any player who wears a Celtics jersey that Boston basketball is played in a hallowed hall, that no matter what is accomplished short of a title, it’s probably not enough to move the needle of history.

But for all of that, Brown took a sliver of Celtics history in the Celtics’ 107-89 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on June 6. Brown’s performance — 22 points, 3 steals, 3 blocks — made history. No Celtics player had accomplished such a feat in the Finals. One of his blocks came at the end of the third quarter when Brown emphatically swatted a shot by Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, the villain of Boston. Brown exhorted delirious fans who, on cue, broke into chants of “Kyrie sucks.”

Brown downplayed this and other moments of his performance.

A reporter asked Brown how he felt after the block on Irving. “What was I feeling?” Brown said, repeating the question. “Just trying to make some plays, get my team going. Defense is what we’ve got to hang our hat on. Right there, that was an example of that.”

Another reporter asked Brown what it meant for him to turn in such a performance on the grand stage of the NBA Finals. “It means nothing,” Brown said without any display of emotion. “Just get ready for the next one.”

Brown was more expansive when a reporter noted how he had consistently gotten into the paint against Dallas and created opportunities for his teammates. “Overall, that’s what I’ve been doing all season long, just getting to the paint. That puts a lot of pressure on the defense,” Brown said, pointing out that with so many good shooters on the team, “making those reads is big for us. I’ve got to continue to maintain that through the series.”

The important part of his answer was, “that’s what I’ve been and doing all season long.”

Despite having played like this all season, Brown inexplicably was left off the All-NBA teams this season. Presumably, some of the national media who failed to vote for Brown were in the interview room on June 6.

Game 1, this entire postseason, and the rest of these Finals are messages to voters and the spirits of Celtics past that he belongs.

While Brown and these Celtics are desperate to finally put a championship banner of their own in the rafters, Brown is waging his own crusade to show that he is simultaneously a great teammate, a perfect and willing complement to Tatum, and an essential component to winning. He’s doing all of this without climbing up a mountain and shouting.

He came close to shouting in May after Boston swept the Indiana Pacers to win the Eastern Conference finals. Brown was fantastic. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, his corner 3-pointer with no time left in regulation sent the game into overtime and allowed Boston to win a game it should have lost. He followed that up in Game 2 with a 40-point night and then two strong offensive and defensive performances in Game 3 and 4.

But when Brown was named Eastern Conference finals MVP, he acknowledged that he genuinely was surprised by the announcement.

“I wasn’t expecting at all,” he said. “I don’t never win s—,” he said, laughing. The room laughed with him.

“I was just happy that we won.”

In that moment of raw candor, I recognized the underdog, the stepchild, the sidekick who dutifully plays his role — though one who wants to be acknowledged now and then as the straw who stirs the drink.

Unlike other duos in the past — notably Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers — there has been no public sniping between Tatum and Brown. There seems to be mutual respect, and they seem to enjoy a Siskel and Ebert-like relationship in which they enjoy what each other brings to the table. The comparisons have largely been external, trying to pit two young Black men against each other, with critics saying that Tatum is perhaps the better all-around player. Sometimes, chatter can manifest in concrete ways, like when a player of Brown’s caliber is shunned.

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd poured fuel on the fire, contributing to the debate by praising Brown: “Well, Jaylen [Brown] is their best player,” Kidd said Saturday when asked about Brown’s Game 1 performance. “Just looking at what he does defensively, he picked up Luka [Dončić] full court. He got to the free throw line. He did everything, and that’s what your best player does. Just understanding he plays both sides, defense and offense, at a high rate. And he’s been doing that the whole playoffs. I mean, when talk about the Eastern Conference MVP, and it seems like he has continued to pick up where he left off.”

On Saturday, Brown dismissed Kidd’s comments by saying, “I don’t have no reaction.”

On May 27, in what should have been a celebratory moment in Indianapolis after winning Eastern Conference finals MVP, Brown allowed himself to talk with great insight into how he made peace with the criticism he often has faced, especially when the Celtics lose, criticism he will face if Boston fails to win a title.

Brown has been an outspoken social justice advocate. He is unapologetically Black and has spoken about police violence in the Black community, economic injustice and the need for empowerment. After the Eastern Conference finals, Brown suggested that his social and political advocacy could play to his disadvantage.

“I’m at that phase of my life where I just embrace all forms of negativity or whatever the cases are,” he said. “Some stuff I don’t understand, and it ain’t meant for me to understand. I know who I am and what I stand for sometimes makes people feel uncomfortable, and sometimes I miss out on things, I miss out on opportunities, awards, marketing deals or whatever the case may be, and you know, at this point, I just embrace it.

“I am who I am and I’m going to stand on my beliefs. I’m one of those people who would die for what they believe in, so I just embrace it at this point and I’m grateful that I’m able to be in this position and the energy is about to shift.”

While some journalists who voted may have overlooked Brown, the Celtics did not.

In July 2023, Brown signed the richest deal in NBA history — a five-year supermax extension worth up to $303.7 million. The contract ensures that Brown will be a Celtic through the 2028-29 season. Brown stands out in an era where money, not titles, often seems to be the highest value. He still has an edge and enough professional pride to be insulted when he feels professionally disrespected.

“I think I am one of the best two-way wings, guards, whatever you want to say, in this game,” he said. “I thought this year I’ve taken a level, and I’ve increased it. I took the matchup, I picked up guys full court, I’d chase guys off screens, I battled with bigs, and I felt like I should have been All-Defensive [Team] and that probably hurt me the most because that’s one of the things that I set out in this season that I wanted to be.”

That is what made his postgame remarks after the Eastern Conference finals impressive. We have seen instances when an athlete gets the long-awaited bag, and their performance slips, almost as if the gold had compromised the hunger that drove them. This series is a legacy-building block for the Celtics and for Brown. When the Celtics won their last championship in 2008, Brown was 12 years old. Tatum was 10.

Brown pushed back on the narrative that he and Tatum have climbed the postseason mountain for the last seven seasons only to slide back down with the same cast of characters.

“I know that everybody wants to pigeonhole us as to what’s happened in the past, but we’ve had a different team every single year,” Brown said. “We’ve had three coaches in the last five years and still people want to just make it seem like it’s the same, it’s the same, it’s the same. But time has gone by, experience has been gained and I think we are ready now to put our best foot forward.”

Boston took a giant step in Game 1. I’m eager to see how Brown plays for the rest of the series. As he wisely noted, every game is its own story.

And for Brown, one game means nothing when you’re attempting to build a legacy.