The Celtics look poised to become the first NBA champions to repeat since the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors, but they face multiple questions about their future after Friday.
Boston survived one game without Jayson Tatum, but the New York Knicks put the nail in the coffin Friday night with a Game 6 win at Madison Square Garden to close out the series. The Celtics became the fourth reigning NBA champion in a row to lose in the second round.
Joe Mazzulla’s side faces a potentially transformative offseason, and it’s why the accomplishments of the championship and this season should be cherished.
“It sucks,” Derrick White told reporters, per MassLive’s Brian Robb “You’ll never get this season back. You’re never going to have the exact same team again. So obviously there were some highs and obviously some lows of the season, but at the moment it’s just kinda down.”
Boston’s payroll is projected to cost more than $500 million, putting the Celtics above the second apron for the second season in a row. That fact wasn’t lost on White and the locker room, which was why Tatum’s Achilles injury potentially signaled the end of an era.
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“I just love playing with the guys that we have in that locker room,” White said. “Just a great group of guys that compete at a high level. Off the court we just had a lot of fun. And I think that’s just what I’ll probably the most proud of, is just being able to say that I put on a Boston Celtics uniform with some amazing group of people, you can go down a list of every person who has been on the Celtics since I’ve been here. That’s probably what I’m most proud of.”
The Celtics will have to watch a new champion take their crown as the best in the NBA before changes come through in the offseason.