Celtics have all the motivation they need: ‘It was never about just trying to win one’

BOSTON — It is amazing what an NBA championship can do for morale.

Two years ago, when the Celtics convened at the Auerbach Center for a somber media day, they introduced a first-time head coach to a team stunned by the news of his predecessor’s improprieties.

This offseason came with its own unique set of circumstances, as all do. Kristaps Porziņģis underwent surgery to a rare ankle injury. Jaylen Brown was left off the Olympic team. Jayson Tatum made the roster but was twice benched in Paris. The team’s ownership group announced its intent to sell the franchise.

And let’s just say the mood was a little different this time around.

“I don’t want to state the obvious,” said Brown, “but we won a championship.

“It was bliss.”

Make no mistake: The Olympics were a thing for Boston’s two best players.

Jayson Tatum speaks to the media during Boston Celtics Media Day at the Auerbach Center on Sept. 24, 2024. (Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Getty Images)

Brown, who was left off Team USA, implied that Nike shared responsibility for his absence from the roster. Brown stepped to the podium in black custom sneakers, which he planned to officially unveil later on Tuesday, vowing to expose “the whole experience that goes on in the sneaker market” in the future.

As for the Olympics, Brown would say only, “I’m extremely motivated for obvious reasons.”

Tatum made Steve Kerr’s squad but played limited minutes during his run to a second gold medal. He, too, said he would draw some motivation from the situation.

“I guess you could say that if you want to simplify it,” said Tatum. “In real time, it was tough. I talked to Joe [Mazzulla] a lot, and he was probably the happiest person in the world that I didn’t win Finals MVP and I didn’t play in two of the games in the Olympics. If you know Joe, it makes sense. Did I need any extra motivation coming into the season? No. I’m not going to give anybody in particular credit that they motivated me coming into the season. It was a unique circumstance, something I haven’t experienced before in my playing career, but I’m a believer that everything happens for a reason.”

In the end, though, “If you’re going to be extrinsically motivated, that’s going to die out, and you’ll kind of be exposed for your external motivation relatively quick,” said Mazzulla, the third-year coach who, along with Boston’s front office, spent the offseason considering this question: Now that they have won the championship, how do they stay hungry for another? Ultimately, each player must answer that himself.

“All the things that you embraced last season and all the things that you say you’re about will be tested at a greater level,” said Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, who cited human nature as an opponent this season, “and if you’re really about that then you elevate yourself even higher.”

Tatum, for one, believes he is about that.

“It was never about just trying to win one,” said the four-time All-NBA selection. “Now, you get to be in the same room with the other great Celtics teams, the other great players. All the guys that I looked up to growing up won at least one championship, so now it’s just a conversation of: How great are you trying to be? What room or what tier are you trying to be mentioned in when it’s all said and done?”

Even the sale of the team, which, for better or worse, will alter the team’s finances, potentially impacting the roster-building process in its extremely expensive near future, could not dampen the team’s outlook.

“Obviously, we’ve put a team together,” said Stevens. “This has been a longterm play to be where we are right now. Plans don’t always go the way you want them to. This one so far has been pretty smooth. There will always be challenges that come along with that. The way [ownership] has phrased it to me since the sale was announced was, ‘We just need to keep doing what we’re doing. Business as usual and do what you can to build the best team that you can, and then we’ll see what happens from there.”

The team they have put together is again the title favorite and largely the same as last season, save for the additions of veteran Lonnie Walker IV and rookie Baylor Scheierman. They will be without the injured Porziņģis until what was projected to be December, though even that comes with good news.

“I don’t know that we’re interested in putting a timeline on him,” said Stevens, who is entering his fourth season at the helm of the front office, “because the injury is unique, but as far as how he feels and the progress that he’s made, I’d say we’re very, very pleased with where he is — and maybe a little surprised.”

It was important to Stevens to keep this group together. Because of their chemistry, he believes in their ability to do what the last five champions did not — repeat — even though he knows how hard it will be. For all the confidence gained and slights perceived, the Celtics’ motivation will come from one another.

“I think that these guys are galvanized by each other,” said Stevens. “They have a unique chemistry that I truly believe matters, and they deserve the opportunity to attack this challenge together.”

That’s right: The Celtics’ title defense — or, as they are phrasing it, their title “attack” — begins now.