Dallas Mavericks' Jason Kidd Causes Stir Calling Jaylen Brown Best Player on Boston Celtics

Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd was asked about Jaylen Brown's impact and he described him as being the Boston Celtics' best player.

Jun 6, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) looks on in the third quarter against the Dallas Mavericks during game one of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports / David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

BOSTON — The Boston Celtics pulled off a 64-win season and have a chance to win a long-awaited championship with a 1-0 series lead over the Boston Celtics in the 2024 NBA Finals. In the modern age of sports debates, many debate whether All-NBA First-Team nominee Jayson Tatum is the team's best player or if it's Jaylen Brown.

Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd was asked about the difficulty of facing Brown after Saturday's practice and described him as the Celtics' "best player" during his summary instead of Jayson Tatum. After Dallas lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals, this could be a strategy to create a potential distraction for Boston, or Kidd feels his fellow Cal alumn is truly the Celtics' best player.

"Well, Jaylen is their best player," Kidd said. "Just looking at what he does defensively, he picked up Luka full court. He got to the free throw line. He did everything, and that's what your best player does. Just understanding he plays both sides, defense and offense, at a high rate. And he's been doing that the whole playoffs. I mean, when talk about the Eastern Conference MVP, and it seems like he has continued to pick up where he left off."

Jun 6, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) looks on in the third quarter against the Dallas Mavericks during game one of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports / David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Brown opted not to feed into the conversation when asked about Kidd's remark, saying, "I don't have no reaction." He added, "I don't know. It's a team game. We're trying to focus on that, and, you know, everybody has their own opinions."

Brown made a major impact for the Celtics in Game 1, setting the tone as the primary defender guarding Luka Doncic, while adding 22 points, six rebounds, three steals, and three blocks. Many of his plays on both ends were momentum stifling to Dallas.

One reporter asked Brown if he felt the comment was a tactic used by Kidd to create some sort of internal distraction with the Celtics. Brown shared his respect for Kidd but made clear the focus he and his team holds is on doing what it takes to win a championship.

"I'm not sure. I'm not sure. But we've been just extremely focused on what our roles and our jobs are," Brown said. "We have all had to sacrifice. Jason (Kidd) has had to do that at the highest of levels, right, and I respect him and tip his cap for it. Right now, at this point, it's whatever it takes to win and we can't let any outside interpretations try to get in between us."

When asked about Kidd's comment, Tatum responded as having "no reaction." Tatum emphasized how it's important to not allow conversations like that to become distracting.

"This is a team sport, right. We understand that," Tatum said. "We wouldn't be here if we didn't have JB on our team, and we can say that for a lot of guys, right. We have all played a part in getting to where we're at, and we understand that people try to drive a wedge between us.

Tatum did acknowledge that it would be a smart strategy to attempt to drive that wedge between him and Brown if that was what Kidd intended to do. "I guess it's a smart thing to do or try to do," he said. "We've been in this position for many of years of guys trying to divide us and say that one of us should be traded or one is better than the other. So it's not our first time at rodeo."

One of the Celtics' veteran leaders, Al Horford, viewed Kidd's comment as a strategy. "J-Kidd, man, I see what he is doing," Horford said. "I see what he is doing. Jaylen Brown is an unbelievable player and very special for us."

Kyrie Irving's perspective as someone who has played with various superstars on difference was added into the mix regarding the external conversation about a team's best player. He wasn't provided the context about Kidd's comment describing Brown as the Celtics' best player, so this was a general statement about these debates.

"By doing your best not to pay attention to it because a lot of people don't know what they are talking about, and specifically if you've never played that position or been on a team at that level where you have to go through it yourself, and I know that we have people that appreciate the game of basketball that speak on it," Irving said. "But at the same time, it's an everyday thing when you're on the team with, you know, other guys that add value to the team. They have skill sets; they work on their game and they want to be appreciated, too."

Irving added how he personally tries to look past the conversation of being a 1A or 1B option in an offense. Interestingly enough, earlier in the postseason, Kidd described Irving as being the Mavericks' 1B option. "I do my best to nonchalantly push that conversation to the side of 1A, 1B or whose team is it, this, that," Irving said. "I'm just here to play basketball. It's a dream come true to be at this level. I've had to work extremely hard. I've been a winner my whole entire life. I've obviously had some failures and loss but done a lot more winning. Used to it."

When attempting to win at the highest level, Irving expressed the importance of being selfless and looking past those conversations. He added, it's a "s----y conversation" to have all together.

"In order to be on that type of frequency or that goal, you've got to be selfless in your approach. Obviously you're not going to get it right all the time, but as a teammate, you just want to push those other things to the side that don't really matter or get you better as a team. So we just leave it to everybody else to argue whose team it is and who has the most responsibility. It's all our jobs to be prepared. S----y conversation, but it has to happen in sports."

The series resumes on Sunday, the Mavericks will seek to tie it up 1-1 and avoid heading to Dallas for the next two games with a 2-0 deficit.