During a recent appearance on V-103 Atlanta, Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown spoke at length about the difference between his leadership style and Jayson Tatum’s:
"Yeah, we definitely—we had leadership amongst a bunch of different guys in different ways,” Brown said. “I would say I was more of a vocal leader for our team. And JT more led by example. He just come out every night, you know what I mean? So I mean, leadership looks different, and, you know, people gravitate to different types of leadership. So for us, we had a great team—a championship team. We had a bunch of veteran guys. So we all kind of led each other to some degree.
“But, you know, setting the tone every single night, hearing somebody’s voice, hearing somebody speaking life into you, letting them know that they with you—all this type of stuff is like, you know, kind of what people relied on me for."
What changes for Jaylen Brown now?
Heading into next season, Brown will be left to lead on his own. Tatum is rehabbing an Achilles rupture that he suffered in the playoffs against the New York Knicks, and now, he’s expected to miss all (or at least most) of next season.
Throughout his career, Tatum’s caught a lot of flak for his leadership style, as he’s not the most vocal guy. However, as Brown noted, every player simply has their own way of doing things.
But regardless of that, the two stars’ clashing leadership styles won’t be present next year. It’s going to be Brown leading the charge on his own in that regard, barring someone like Derrick White or Payton Pritchard stepping up (which is very possible).
The Celtics are facing their toughest challenge in roughly a decade. They’ve made the playoffs in 11 straight seasons, and it will be up to Brown to keep that streak alive without his co-star.
Leadership may be more important than ever this season. The Celtics have had a championship-caliber roster for the last few years, but now, they’ll be fighting an uphill battle.
Having strong leaders at the front, which Brown has proven to be, will be crucial. And if he wants to leave the Celtics to the postseason, he may even have to take things up a notch.
Alongside Joe Mazzulla, who will undoubtedly have to either adjust or double down on his leadership style with a new challenge in front of him, Brown will have to lift the Celtics up in a year when things look different.