A fairly innocuous question led to a humorous postgame moment between Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on Monday night.
Following the Boston Celtics' 121-99 win over the Trail Blazers in Portland, Brown was asked if he has an appreciation for the team's consistent success after it became the first NBA squad to reach 50 wins this season.
Halfway through the question, Tatum began laughing and shaking his head.
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"We just talked about this," Tatum muttered, before turning to Brown with a smile. "Give the speech."
"The speech" apparently is a message Brown delivers to his Celtics teammates around this time every season. The theme? Appreciation for the team's consistent success.
"For sure, super grateful," Brown said with a laugh, as seen in the video player above. "All the guys laugh because, around this time of year, I say the same thing: How much of an honor it is to be on a team that's won. Getting to the playoffs, you don’t want to take that for granted.
"So, I’ma keep saying it till I’m blue in the face, man: I’m grateful to be on a team that’s winning, to be on a team that’s been playing the right way and has another opportunity to do something special. That’s a blessing.
"I don't care if they want to hear it or not. I'm grateful."
Brown's teammates may needle him for repeating the same speech every year, but it's an important message. While much has been made recently of Boston falling short in the 2022 NBA Finals and 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics have been remarkably consistent since Tatum and Brown entered the league. They've made the playoffs in each of the duo's six seasons together, reached the East Finals in four of those six seasons and boast the NBA's best overall record since Brown's rookie year in 2016-17.
"It’s been an honor giving that speech every year," Brown added. "You see what’s going on in different places around the league. Team chemistry, locker room, teams that are in losing environments. That hasn’t been us. For the most part, I’ve won every step of my career. And that’s been because of great teammates, great organization."
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Brown has grown as a locker room leader in recent years, but after the offseason departure of Marcus Smart, this is now unequivocally Brown and Tatum's team. It's clear they're embracing that responsibility, and it's clear they're on the same page about having their sights set on a championship, but not skipping steps along the way.
"It’s important for us to not take these moments for granted,” Tatum added. “We want to win a championship, that’s the ultimate goal. But it’s important to acknowledge the small wins essentially through the process. Winning 50 games, making the playoffs, getting a top seed, it’s not to take those things for granted because we work extremely hard as a group to achieve that."
The 50-14 Celtics are back in action Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET against the Jazz in Utah, with NBC Sports Boston's coverage beginning at 8 p.m. ET with Celtics Pregame Live.