Boston Celtics, the example of sporting dignity that the NBA needs
Adam Silver needs Boston to be champion because his focus on the 2025-26 season is the best example of anti-tanking
Jayson Tatum smiled with the Larry O’Brien trophy in his hands. Jaylen Brown, at his side, hugged him like someone accompanying his brother on graduation day. He had the Finals MVP in his hands. It was the 2023-24 season, it was Joe Mazzulla’s first year on the substitute bench, and everything was green joy. Finally, Tatum and Brown, Batman and Robin, had climbed the League’s Mount Rushmore. There was the perimeter combo, in the fullness of its arts, breaking the curse of years without tasting success.
Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford and Luke Kornet were elated. Brad Stevens, in the distance, was half-smiling. An experienced chess player analyzing the upcoming move. A continuous algebra exercise that hides the inevitable next steps. Because the bottleneck of the future was added to the joy of the present. Stevens had the complex payroll on his mind: it would be a summer of bittersweet feelings. On the one hand, the 18th championship for the winningest franchise in history. On the other hand, the red numbers that the general manager and especially the current owners of the team, the Grousbeck family, knew, who had hit a home run with a championship team. The bet had an intrinsic objective in hook mode: to value the team, find the right fisherman and then sell it.
Bill Chisholm, managing partner of Symphony Technology Group, was that angler. It paid $6.1 billion on March 20, 2025, the largest amount in history for an American franchise.
Sports success said one thing. The other salary flexibility.
Stevens had decisions to make.
Boston Celtics and their essay on dignity
The 2024-25 season ended in the worst way for the Celtics: Jayson Tatum, prodigal son of the city, heir to Bill Russell, Larry Bird and Paul Piercesuffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in the Conference Semifinals against the Knicks. The scenario was truly dramatic for a team used to competing at the top. Stevens’ mission, with Mazzulla as a strategic partner, was more of a vision. The present did not match the future, because we had to escape from the second ‘apron’ of the NBA. The financial sanctions of the collective bargaining agreement, severe by any measure, put Boston management with a sword of Damocles over its head. Something had to be done quickly and it had to be done now.
The dismantling, then, was as painful as it was complete: Holiday, Porzingis, Kornet, Horford and Georges Niang put the team out of the luxury tax. By that time, fans anticipated a logical scenario of rebuilding and tanking while awaiting Tatum’s return. Something like a transition year.
And here, at this precise moment, is when the extraordinary happened. Because in life, one can choose who one wants to be: whether to be the tortoise and go slowly the long way, or to be the hare and take shortcuts that may bring results but will not stop flirting with the trap. It’s the difference between achieving things with the sweat of your brow or winning the lottery. The end does not justify the means. And dignity, honor, is not negotiable.
It will have been a closed-door meeting. A goal established in advance, like the shared secret of a Masonic lodge. The commitment to go against the established order, rewrite limits, form, build and build a big dream with serious chances of being utopia. One step at a time. Day by day. Trust, believe, bet and enjoy.
Neemias Queta. Jordan Walsh. Baylor Scheierman. Payton Pritchard. Ron Harper II. Hugo Gonzalez. A group of strangers doing their job. Why tank if you can compete? They brought in Anfernee Simons and traded him for Nikola Vucevic gaining even more salary flexibility. Another great move by Stevens. Jaylen Brown in MVP mode. Mazzulla playing to win against everyone. And against everything. The eye of God peering through Tatum’s keyhole waiting for a miracle, a return in fullness, something that finally happened.
It could have been another story
Today the Celtics are second in the East. It could have been something else. They could have been Indiana Pacers, because Tyrese Haliburton’s case is similar to Tatum’s. They could have moved their chips to the other side of the cloth and played at being the Utah Jazz. Or Sacramento Kings. Or Memphis Grizzlies.
But not. They oxygenated the numbers without doing atrocities. They chose to compete and make an invisible reconstruction. They were convinced they could win. That’s why Stevens is Executive of the Year. That’s why Mazzulla is the Coach of the Year. That’s why the Celtics, now with Tatum, always with Brown, can be champions again.
Adam Silver doesn’t need to go into too much detail. Life sometimes brings unexpected pleasures on a silver platter. If Boston wins the Larry O’Brien Trophy, if this blow to initial predictions occurs, it will have the best possible example against tanking. If they could, so can you.
The medium, dear friends, is the message.
