NBA Finals Awards Ceremony | The Boston Celtics are the 2023-24 NBA Champions!

Most championships in NBA history all started with a great Brad Auerbach and of course the legendary Bill Russell. The team won 11 from 1956 to 1969. Just kept winning year after year with some of the all-time greatest players in NBA history. Then two more in the 70s, three more in the 80s. Of course Larry Bird, John Havlicek, so many great players. And then in 2008 with Pearson Garnett and Ray Allen. Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, Al Horford, Derek White, Drew Holliday, the latest Boston Celtic NBA champions. Still waiting to find out who is going to be finals MVP, but with this team they don't really care. They're all MVPs, they're all champions. Let's get the ceremony started right now here at the TD Garden. Nobody wants to leave. Let's go to PA announcer Eddie Palladino. Fans now at center court for the presentation of the Larry O'Brien trophy and the 2024 Bill Russell. Please welcome ABC's Lisa Thank you. Our managing partners Steve Pagliuca and Bob Epstein. Head coach Joe Mazula and president of basketball operations Brad Stephens. And here to present the trophy to the Boston Celtics NBA commissioner Adam Soule. Thank you Lisa. To the Boston Celtics congratulations and NBA record 18 championships. Congratulations on assembling an incredible team. Coach Mazula, where are you? You did it. Unbelievable. And to the fans, thank you very much. Without you we wouldn't be here. And now it's my honor to present to the Boston Celtics the 2024 Larry O'Brien how were they able to every time rise to meet the moment? Michelle, the brilliance of Joe Mazula is that he wouldn't let expectations get in the way. Joe Mazula said there's no expectations. You've got to win or die trying. Joe set a plan and he kept everybody focused and these guys played team basketball, great Celtics basketball. It wasn't about expectations. It was getting it done. You've been close the last few years but decided this offseason to make some major changes. How did you and Brad Stephens know that staying the course just wasn't going to be good enough? Well we all watched the team the last few years and great great teams but not not quite there. It was brilliant. We knew we needed to make changes. We knew we wanted to make changes and Brad got it done. He brought in Drew. He brought in KP and here we are banner 18 is back. Congratulations Rick. Let's talk to your head coach. What makes this group so special? First of all obviously for us for me our faith is the most important thing. Number one we got the best fans in the world. Best fans presenting the Celtics and being part of history and taking on the ownership and the responsibility and we're nothing without these guys right here. These are the most important people, the players, their families and everything that they do and we're nothing without them. Again the expectations were high all season long but how did you help them understand that embracing those expectations could be a strength and not a weak. I mean you get very few chances in life to be great and you get very few chances in life to carry on the ownership and the responsibility of what these banners are and all the great people all the great players and when you have a few chances in life you just got to take the bull by the horns and you got to just own it and our guys own it. Thank you Joe. Congratulations to you and now the presentation of the 2024 Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award. Again Commissioner Silver. Bill this trophy mean to you? It was a full team effort and I shared this with my brothers and my partner in crime Jason Tatum he was with me the whole way so we shared this together. You said that what's been different about your game this season is that you let go all of the anxieties all the doubts. First of all you're a superstar so no one knew you had any anxieties or doubts but how were you able to do that to unlock your game as you put it? Just my faith in the most high. Just believing in my teammates my coaching staff and just being grateful. I've been grateful for every moment every opportunity I never hugged my head. Thank you Jalen. Congratulations. Jason where are you? Jason you and Jalen have played in 100 games together. 107 playoff games you played with Jalen. Just that's the most for any duo before winning a title. What's it mean to you now to finally get it done and to get it done together? It means the world. It means the world. First and foremost God is the greatest for putting us in this position for us to be surrounded by each other for us to put us in positions to maximize our ability. It's been a long time coming and damn it was worth it. It never divided you. You said it only made you closer. How? Because we know we need each other. We all need each other. This is a team sport and we went through the ups and downs. You know we deserve this. We earned this. Have stood on team all season long on breakable bonds so I'm just going to throw out questions. Come on up. Get up here close to me. I'm just going to throw out the questions. Whoever wants to answer, answer. Except the first question has to be to you Alec. I didn't want you to wait a moment longer. Tell me what has the wait been like? It's been long, a lot of hard work but I'm so proud to be part of this team and that it happened now. You've attempted this for so long and now you finally are a champion. Can you describe to me what's going through your head right now? I can't believe it. I still can't believe it. I mean we did it. We're here. This is just how I pictured it here at the garden with our fans. Everybody together. This is just how I saw it eight years ago. This is how I saw it eight years ago. WIC knows about it. WIC knows about the race. Eight years ago. Yes sir. Congratulations to you Alec. All right guys. Who wants to be next? Remember I'm just going to throw out questions. Whoever wants to answer, answer. KP, how were you even able to play tonight? How were you even able to play tonight? Was that better? Good question. I don't know. The medical staff did everything they could and I gave my all and I was able to get out there. You said you were going to die out here if you had to. Why were you not going to miss this game? Say that again please. Why were you not going to miss this game? How could I? On home floor, we're the champions. Let's go. Congratulations. Drew, where's Drew? Drew, you were brought here for this reason, to be up on this stage. Why were you such a perfect fit for this team? I think it's every player on this team. Not just the players, not just the coaching staff and the organization. They really embraced me when I first got here and they made this game super easy but the fans here are insane man. I didn't expect to be like this. What are you most proud of? I think that we did it together and I feel like the world saw that. We did it as a team. No individual player. Everybody locked arms and we got the job done. Congratulations to you, Drew. Derek White, where are you? Smile for us. Let's see that pretty smile. His teeth, he got a chip too. This cost you. Man, this is what we work for. I mean, I'll lose all my teeth for a championship and so I'll get it fixed and I'm gonna enjoy this one. Derek, this team has been about sacrifice all season long. How were you guys able to come out here, no agendas, join together and listen to all the noise and get this done? We got an unreal group of guys in this locker room, on the court, off the court. We just get along so well and the coaching staff has always been just pushing us and driving us to get better and this is what it's all about. What are you going to remember most about this journey? We didn't skip any steps from the beginning to the end and just a lot for America. That is special. Congratulations to you, Derek. Congratulations to all of you. MVP, Jalen Brown and to the 2024 NBA champion, Boston. Mike, back to you. Thank you, Lisa. Complete and utter joy. It just, it has to be overwhelming and JJ and Doris, we've seen them all season long and it comes to fruition here and just the way they handled this. They're the epitome of a team. They're always willing to credit the other person. There's no me, there's no I. It's always about their teammates, the coaches, the ownership, their fans. This is, that's just reflective of who these players are and Mike, I want to, I want to say a couple things as a fan of sport, as a fan of sport, to know that these guys had a dream and committed to the work and committed to the craft. Every day they're in the gym, this is what they're envisioning and you listen to them talk. It's better than they ever could have expected and you hear what Tatum said about it was all worth it. You can grow through failure. You think about him in 2022, he didn't have the playmaking chops that was needed to win this NBA finals. It was his growth through failure that allowed the Boston Celtics to succeed. I have to give a shout out to Brad Stevens because that at the top of the organization, trying to put together a team, you stand fast in the face of the criticism about the Jays not being able to play together. You have to make really hard decisions. Marcus Smart was the culture setter, but to get better and to change your roster, you were willing to part with him. And then the gutsy decisions, Mike, you put a 34 year old last year in charge of one of the storied franchises in the world. Unbelievable leadership from top to bottom. He was the head coach for eight years. Now the president of basketball operations for three years and Stevens and his staff, including his special consultant, Jeff Fancutti this year, all part of it as the Boston Celtics from front office to coaching staff, the medical staff, training staff and the players. It's the first time in seven years, the team with the best regular season record won the title. It's also the sixth different team to win the title in the last six years. And for the Boston Celtics, their first championship in 16 years and number 18, and they win it on their own floor in front of their adoring fans. As the MVP Jalen Brown caps off a magnificent playoff run, a special night at the TD garden in Boston, and then a special celebration out on causeway street, much more to come as the Celtics win another NBA title.