‘That’s my man’: What Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown said about their friendship – Boston.com

Celtics

“If y’all want to hear it from me, that’s my dog.”

Still have questions about whether Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown get along?

Brown would like to set the record straight.

“If y’all want to hear it from me,” Brown said in a joint interview with Tatum on NBC Sports Boston, “that’s my dog.”

The chatter around Tatum and Brown reached unprecedented levels this summer as talking heads and media members speculated whether the two like each other. The Celtics want to keep both players happy, but Tatum’s best friend — Bradley Beal — could be available if the Wizards struggle again this season, which helped spark the discussion.

Tatum and Brown, however, came up together. Brown was drafted in 2016, while Tatum was selected in 2017. The duo made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals in Tatum’s rookie year, and again two years later. In between, they worked their way through a tumultuous season with Kyrie Irving. Last year, they absorbed growing pains and a difficult season with COVID-19.

Now, Tatum and Brown are growing tired of fielding these questions.

“I don’t want say it’s weird but could you imagine being our age and being in the spotlight and having all these people want to know if you’re friends with another 24-, 25-year-old?” Tatum told NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg. “I’ve known JB for seven or something years and, over time as he said, we’ve been through some stuff together. We’ve been in the playoffs, been in the bubble, had some heated arguments, had some good times. And I think that’s just part of spending time with each other.

“And, yeah, we close. Like, his family has watched my son. People are different, people have different interests but that’s just part of coexisting with somebody.”

Brown praised Tatum profusely, saying the 23-year-old will be “one of the greats.”

“That’s my man, you know what I mean?” Brown said. “It’s weird to talk about it on camera. But that’s my man. Like if you need something, you can come to me whenever. We got to talk about something? We can pick up the phone, you know what I mean? That’s how it is.”