Celtics
“I don’t look at it as a failure. I don’t look at any situation like that as a failure.”
The Boston Celtics could be facing some sizable changes this offseason after their run at back-to-back titles came up short on Friday night.
Not only will Boston face the real possibility of Jayson Tatum missing a majority — if not all — of the 2025-26 season due to a ruptured Achilles tendon, Brad Stevens and the Celtics’ top brass might have to break up the team’s roster in order to lessen the hefty luxury-tax penalties set to hit the club’s payroll next year.
But even with the potential fears looming that this latest contention window has closed, Jaylen Brown offered up some optimism in the immediate aftermath of Friday’s season-ending blowout loss to the Knicks.
“Losing to the Knicks feels like death, but I was always taught that there’s life after death, so we’ll figure out whatever’s next,” Brown said. “Whatever’s next in the journey — I’ll be ready for. … I know, Boston, it looks gloomy right now with JT being out and us at the end of the year, but there’s a lot to look forward to and I want the city to feel excited about that, that this is not the end.”
The following day, Celtics guard Payton Pritchard also focused on the positives for Boston, noting that coming up short in the team’s bid at back-to-back championships does not mean that this team’s status as a contender will wane.
“I look at it like the Spurs, right? You consider them having a dynasty,” Pritchard said at the Auerbach Center on Saturday. “They never went back-to-back, but since they never went back-to-back, are all those years that they didn’t win a failure, or did those years help them win the next championship?”
While Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich won five NBA championships together in San Antonio, they never won back-to-back titles. Instead , the Spurs routinely reshuffled franchise fixtures around Duncan and David Robinson — be it Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and eventually Kawhi Leonard.
For all of the hardware that the Celtics have collected over the years, Boston has not won consecutive championships since Bill Russell and Co. were on the parquet floor. Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish won three titles together in 1981, 1984, and 1986.
It remains to be seen what the 2025-26 Celtics roster will look like after a busy offseason.
But so long as Tatum can eventually return with a clean bill of health, Boston should have the means to consistently make a push for a title during his prime seasons — especially if Stevens can successfully retool around him in the next few years.
“I don’t look at it as a failure. I don’t look at any situation like that as a failure,” Pritchard said of coming up short in 2024-25. “Failure is only when you stop trying to compete for something. … I will be a better player next year.”
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