Tatum details a special chemistry the Celtics built during a championship run originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Celtics played phenomenal basketball last season en route to the franchise’s 18th NBA championship. And it wasn’t just the incredible talent and depth on the roster that made it all possible.
This team has a special chemistry and camaraderie. It’s hard to quantify these things. There is no advanced metric for team chemistry or how much the players like each other.
But if such statistics existed, the Celtics would almost certainly have been the league.
This group loves to play with each other, and it’s one of the reasons why superstar forward Jayson Tatum is so eager to reunite and start the team’s title defense.
“I had a lot of fun last year with our group,” Tatum said Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston on Media Dayas seen in the video player above. “I’ve been on teams that — the cohesion isn’t that great, so you know when it’s special. We really enjoyed playing with each other, and we had a lot of fun during the season last year and we made so many. memories.
“We accomplished something that will bond us together forever. I missed being around the coaches and the guys on the team, so I’m really happy to be back around them.”
It’s rare to see a team have the kind of chemistry the 2023-24 Celtics built, and it’s even rarer for a team to bring back almost its entire roster the season after winning the Finals.
Boston’s top 11 players in minutes played per game last season are all back for the 2024-25 campaign, which begins next Tuesday against the New York Knicks at TD Garden.
The Celtics made some new additions over the summer, notably rookie Baylor Scheierman and veteran Lonnie Walker IV, but almost the entire title-winning squad is back.
This gives the Celtics an edge over other contenders who have had major pieces added or subtracted from their roster during the offseason and have yet to develop good chemistry.
