Jaylen Brown loves that defending champion Celtics have a target on their back
BOSTON -- The Celtics still have a banner to raise on Opening Night. But according to Jaylen Brown, the team is already done celebrating their 2024 NBA championship.
The Celtics will collect their rings and raise the franchise's 18th championship banner when they tip off the 2024-25 season on Oct. 22 at TD Garden, which will officially close the book on last season's title run. But don't think that Brown and company are satisfied after finally reaching the top of the NBA mountain.
Winning a title has just made Brown and the Celtics even more hungry to keep on winning. And to do so, the team has to move on from last year and focus on their title defense in 2024-25.
Brown says that has already happened, and the team is ready for whatever next season brings.
"Last year is over, to be honest," Brown told Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. "We celebrated, we had a good time, it's been an awesome summer – I've been having a great summer, by the way – but it's over with, and now it's back to work."
Now is not the time to rest on what the team did last year. The Celtics have a giant bullseye on their back, with everyone in the NBA looking to take down the champs. Brown is embracing that, and has a simple message for the opposition: Bring it.
"Now we've got the target on our back. Everybody's trying to come after us, and I'm like, 'Come on,'" he said. "So, it's back to work and I'm looking forward to next season."
This is the exact mindset you want from one of the best players on the team. Brown is fresh off winning MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals, but he remains hungry. And while he's now got his first NBA title and a few MVP trophies, he's got plenty of motivation going forward after being passed over by Team USA for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The Celtics will bring back the majority of the roster that just won a championship and are the betting favorites to win it all in 2024-25. If they do so, Boston would be the first repeat champions since the Golden State Warriors did so in 2017 and 2018.
