The Celtics are 0-3 and fans cannot stop fighting with each other

Three straight losses to start a season is something that’s only happened 10 times in the 80-year history of the Boston Celtics. Before Sunday’s loss in Detroit against the Pistons, it hadn’t happened in 11 years.

It’s safe to say that this is an unfamiliar territory for Celtics fans, at least those on the younger side. Many aren’t quite sure how they should react and aren’t handling it well. In fact, two separate civil wars are happening within the Celtics community as I write this.

Neither of which is new; they’ve just become more intense with these three early losses.

Tank vs. Don’t Tank

All summer long, fans and media members tried to figure out whether this Celtics roster had the talent to compete in a weak Eastern Conference. Through three games, it’s still too early to tell, but they’re not exactly off to a roaring start.

Boston ranks towards the bottom of the league in opponent second chance points, opponent offensive rebounds, defensive rebounding percentage, assist percentage, three-point percentage, and pace.

Many of those struggles are connected and can be fixed with improved shooting (which feels feasible) and improved rebounding (not as feasible), but it’s certainly not the way the team would’ve hoped their first three games had gone.

For some fans, though, this is exactly what they were hoping for. As soon as Jayson Tatum went down with a torn Achilles back in May, whispers of tanking the 2025-26 season in hopes of landing a top draft pick began to swirl.

Others aren’t convinced just yet. They still believe in this roster and think that tanking puts a losing stink on a franchise (see the 76ers). 

I, personally, have started to flirt with Team Tank a bit, and it’s pretty fun.

Jaylen Brown vs. Jayson Tatum

This debate isn’t nearly as lighthearted.

For some reason, there are two smaller groups of Celtics fans who haven’t accepted that both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown can exist on the same team, and are dead set on only supporting one of them.

Like, look at this:

For what it’s worth, the point about the roster turnover is valid. The team that Brown is out there playing with isn’t close to the quality it’s been for years. At the same time, trying to use that to argue Tatum’s absence isn’t part of why the Celtics have played so poorly is comical.

Having a top-five player in the league is always going to help.

At the same time, you’ve got accounts like this (which seemingly only tweets negatively about JB), who have been waiting for years to finally feel vindicated in their disdain for the former Finals MVP.

Brown was not good against the New York Knicks. Aside from that, he’s played well, scored efficiently, and avoided forcing bad shots. Of course, JB has to find a way to tighten up the turnovers, but he’s handled the pressure as a scorer pretty well.

The best part of all of this is that the Celtics have both players signed for the long term. They’ve won a title with both players on the roster. They don’t have to choose between them, nor have they shown interest in doing so.

Being so negatively charged towards either one of them is clown behavior.