Jaylen Brown took what was supposed to be the legacy-making, critic-silencing, championship-winning storybook of his teammate Jayson Tatum, and turned it into his own redemption song.

On Monday, the Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to clinch a league-record 18th title for that franchise, and the first title for the All-Star duo of Brown and Tatum. The Finals MVP was awarded to Brown, a practicing Muslim who averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game in the series. He joins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Shaquille O’Neal on the list of (as far as we know) Muslim players to win Finals MVP.

Six years ago, Brown and Tatum led the Celtics to the 2018 Eastern Conference finals, where they fell to LeBron James’ Cavaliers. It was a tough loss, but also encouraging for Boston. Brown was only in his second pro season back then, and Tatum was a rookie. They were the team’s top two scorers in the postseason. Players that young typically don’t carry such heavy responsibilities during a deep playoff run. The prevailing thought was they’d be better for the experience, and they’d be back.

And they did make it back. Between 2018 and 2023, the Celtics played in the conference finals four times, including in 2022 when they made it to the NBA Finals but lost to Stephen Curry’s Warriors. During that stretch of what would be considered amazing success for most teams, Brown and Tatum — the two active faces of the legendary Celtics franchise — collected a lot of criticism. Brown was knocked for his bad habit of committing costly turnovers; the trendy joke was that the man who signed the richest contract in NBA history couldn’t even dribble with his left hand. But it was Tatum who took the most heat. Since Tatum was widely considered the best (and most marketable) player on the Celtics, he took the majority of the blame for the team’s shortcomings. Tatum’s shot selection was scrutinized. His ability to come through in the clutch was in doubt. His heart was questioned. The most nagging unsolved mysteries: Was Tatum ever going to be great enough to be the guy on a championship team? Was he truly an elite player, or just a pretty good player on a popular team?

The 2023-24 season was shaping up to be Tatum’s magnum opus. He earned his third straight first-team All-NBA selection. He led Boston with 26.9 points per game in the regular season. He finished sixth in league MVP voting as the Celtics posted an NBA-best record of 64-18. Brown was good, too. He was chosen as an All-Star for the third time and averaged a career-best 23.9 points. But while Tatum was making a push for league MVP, Brown’s most memorable moment prior to the playoffs might have been his letdown of a showing in the Slam Dunk contest. And so Tatum remained the headliner through Boston’s first- and second-round playoff series. He was on pace to finally get the postseason accolades that make for a certified superstar.

But then Brown started stealing the spotlight. Brown was voted MVP of the Eastern Conference finals after averaging 29.8 points and 2.0 steals against the Pacers. And as Boston built a 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals over Dallas, Brown became a strong favorite to win Finals MVP. He averaged a team-high 24.3 points in those three wins. But then in Game 4, Boston lost in a blowout and Brown had just 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting. Tatum wasn’t much better (15 points, 4-of-10 FG), but look no further than Curry’s 2018 Finals; all it takes is one bad game in a short series for a player to let Finals MVP slip from their grasp.

In Game 5, Tatum again had the better stat line: 31 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists to Brown’s 21-8-6. But after Boston’s lopsided victory to secure the title, the 11-member media panel voted 7-4 in Brown’s favor for the coveted individual award. The 27-year-old Brown now had the team success and individual hardware to silence his critics. Tatum said all of the right things along the way, about not being concerned with stats or awards, about putting the team and winning first. But he knows as much as anyone that the Finals MVP is a defining achievement in a player’s career and how much it would’ve meant for his resume.

Brown is now immortalized as part of Celtics’ lore.

Brown led (or at least co-led) Boston to its record-breaking 18th NBA championship. In the process, he won two trophies that are named after the two greatest players in team history: Larry Bird (Eastern Conference finals MVP) and Bill Russell (Finals MVP). Twenty-two Boston players have their jerseys hanging in the TD Garden arena to honor their greatness, but only six Celtics have ever won NBA Finals MVP: Bird (twice), John Havlicek, Jo Jo White, Cedric Maxwell, Paul Pierce, and now, Jaylen Brown.