Jaylen Brown Recalls Danny Ainge Asking Him Opinion Of Jayson Tatum

Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have one of the closest bonds in the NBA relative to other star duos — a match made in heaven for the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics are one win away from winning the NBA championship heading into Friday’s Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. Boston on Thursday did a lot of self-reflection, and Brown recalled his first summer alongside Tatum.

“I remember (former Celtics president of basketball operations) Danny (Ainge) calling me. I think I was in Málaga, Spain or Cordova, one of the two,” Brown told reporters, per NBA video. “And Danny called me. It was like 4 a.m. — don’t ask me why I was up. Danny calls me and asks me, ‘How do you feel about Jayson Tatum?’ I remember I played with him at camps. He was my roommate at the KD Elite camp. We played on so many teams. The Under Armour All-American Game, we were roommates again. I had a lot of experience with him, and I played with him on the same team. There was a lot of respect. So, I said, ‘I think it’s a great choice.’ Fast forward from there, we’ve been winning ever since.”

After drafting Brown third overall in the 2016 NBA Draft, Ainge made a masterful trade in the next year’s draft to secure Tatum. Those were draft picks Boston nearly wasn’t able to pull off had the Celtics pulled the trigger on multiple superstar trades they were rumored to be interested in.

Those selections proved to be the foundation for a championship-level team, and the Celtics can complete that destiny with a win Friday night to claim the Larry O’Brien Trophy.