Jaylen Brown admits outside noise made him and Jayson Tatum closer

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Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum tried to nip it in the bud before the regular season even began.

In a joint interview our Chris Forsberg at the Celtics' media day last September, the team's two young stars insisted their relationship was on solid footing and that they were both committed to having success in Boston.

"If y’all want to hear it from me, that’s my dog," Brown said of Tatum.

Jaylen opens up about how relationship with Kyrie has changed

But as the Celtics scuffled early in the season, questions persisted about whether Tatum and Brown could coexist, to the point where some were calling for the team to break up the young duo.

The Jays and their teammates responded by pulling off one of the greatest second-half turnarounds in NBA history, finishing as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference at 51-31.

Reflecting on Boston's roller-coaster season, Brown admitted that all the noise he and Tatum dealt with early in the campaign may have strengthened an already solid relationship.

"You don't really think about it, especially when you're in the middle of it right now or about to start something like the playoffs. But I think it has grown," Brown told NBC Sports Boston's Abby Chin in a 1-on-1 interview that aired Thursday.

"Somebody asked a question in the media (recently), like, 'Has all the media attention between you and Jayson kind of made you guys a little closer?' And we were fine before. A lot of media reports were saying that we weren't friends -- I don't know where that came from. I think a lot of people were just making stuff up. We were fine.

"And I think because of that, it made us maybe a little bit closer in a sense, in a weird way. I guess in a sense, to answer your question, our relationship has grown maybe because of that."

Adversity can often bring people closer together, and that appears to be true not only of the Jays but of the entire Celtics roster. While team chemistry seemed to be an issue earlier in the season, the C's have coalesced into a tight-knit group under first-year head coach Ime Udoka that plays unselfish, team-first basketball.

Forsberg: How Ime Udoka set the tone from Day 1 in Boston

Tatum and Brown have led by example in that department. Both players averaged career highs in assists this season (4.4 per game for Tatum; 3.5 per game for Brown) while making huge strides as facilitators to help Boston's offense improve dramatically down the stretch.

The Celtics' hardest work is in front of them, as Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets present a stiff challenge in the first round. But Brown and Tatum already have plenty of experience handling adversity.

Check out Brown's full interview with Abby Chin on YouTube or in the video below.

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