All sports serve to tell a story about why certain games matter and why rivalries hold so much power. Sports narratives are mostly rooted in things that happened and trends that occur, but at times, the truth can be stretched, and narratives bleed into sensationalized content.
There are usually two different types of narratives: ones surrounding players and ones surrounding the game itself.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown: Who’s the Guy on the Celtics?
The Tatum and Brown storyline has been around since the two debuted, but recently, it’s picked up since Tatum returned on March 6 vs. the Mavericks after tearing his Achilles in Game 4 of the 2025 Eastern Conference Semifinals.
The narrative often presents the two of them as competing for success, a common theme among NBA teams since the collapse of the Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden “big three” in Brooklyn: the belief that the team cannot have multiple points of success and that one must outperform the other.
Every team needs to have their “guy.” For the majority of the Golden State Warriors’ success, that guy has been Curry, although he did not win Finals MVP for the first three titles; he was the driver for their success in their championship seasons. For the Lakers in the late 2010s, it was Kobe Bryant. Kevin Garnett and Anthony Edwards fill this function on their respective Minnesota Timberwolves teams.
Often, the media tries to place stars in a Batman and Robin-like scenario. The Cavaliers, featuring Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland; the Lakers, again with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson; and the Bulls,with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
However, such narratives can tear apart two stars, as was the case with Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. Following their three-peat in 2000, 2001 and 2002, media figures began framing the championships as something Kobe “received” rather than “earned,” often comparing him to Pippen to imply he was merely a high-end support piece for O’Neal.
Having grown up idolizing Michael Jordan, Kobe was reportedly obsessed with a legacy where he wasn’t viewed as the sidekick. Although O’Neal maintains that he was in charge (and during the feud, engaged with the narrative publicly), he urges others not to discount Bryant’s contributions to the team. He explicitly told Shaq that if they were to continue winning, he had to be the “lead dog” because he wasn’t getting the credit he deserved.
Unlike those examples, there isn’t a massive age gap or a clear “Batman and Robin” hierarchy; they are peers who grew up in the league at the same time, drafted a year after one another.
For the better part of the last nine seasons, they’ve been successful together. Since Brown’s rookie season (2016-17), the Celtics have made it to at least the third round (conference finals/tournament semifinals) of the playoffs every year except one. They have been in the conference finals four times. Tatum and Brown are part of the team’s consistent success.
Photo courtesy of @spurs on Instagram
MVP Race Inconsistency
Some make the case that Brown and Cade Cunningham can still win MVP, especially over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Victor Wembanyama.
As excellent as those two are, that’s highly unlikely, given reigning MVP Gilgeous-Alexander hit a game winner in the same game he tied a 63-year-old record. As discussed in a previous article, there are many other issues with the current state of the award.
Do note that, as with many other sports, there is no set criteria to determine MVP — it’s usually 100 media personnel sitting together and voting from their opinion, which we have no way of knowing for sure.
An NBA MVP, in modern times, is decided by one of four factors: their team’s record, their personal stats, their on/off net rating/box plus/minus, anda voter’s opinion of the player and what they interpret as value in the NBA.
Since there is no “set criteria,” voters often fall back on the “story” they want to tell. This is why many people were not comfortable with the idea of Nikola Jokic winning MVP three times in a row; the stats were there, but the “narrative” had moved on, so they refused to award him.
In addition, many held his lack of a championship (as of the beginning of the 2022-2023 season) against him, because, usually, players who had won MVP three times in a row had won a championship by then, as did Bird, Chamberlain and Russell.
Given media reception of both Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, it’s become a common trend for international players to be viewed through the lens of what they have not accomplished. A major reason for this is the NCAA to NBA pipeline.
Because the media lacks a ‘pre-packaged’ collegiate story for these players, they often rely on traditional milestones, like championships, much earlier and more strictly than they would for a domestic star with an established ‘hero’ arc.
This is a prime example of narrative gatekeeping. Without the NCAA to NBA marketing pipeline, international players are forced to pay a ‘championship tax’ just to stay in the MVP conversation. With the growing number of international players who are taking the stage (you may have seen a graphic about the nationality of all of the MVP’s in NBA history),
Gilgeous-Alexander has bridged this gap somewhat regarding the coverage of international stars.
The Price of Being on the Lakers
Doncic has been the source of a lot of criticism since he was traded to the Lakers in February of 2025. From what is perceived as complaining to the refs to his defensive motor, he’s been swinging in and out of public favor for the past couple of weeks.
Complaining to the refs should be classified as not an issue with the player, but rather a side effect of the NBA’s questionable refereeing, which has been a notable problem for years. This is a problem, as players have been fined for making gestures that insinuate the referees make money off certain calls.
The main point here is that none of this criticism (at large, anyway) happened at this level while Doncic was playing for Dallas. This is an example of what is dubbed the “Lakers Tax” in full effect.
The Lakers tax is a concept that, when playing with such a historic franchise in a large city and market, you are almost bound to have every action and reaction criticized. Think of them as the Yankees of the NBA in terms of branding.
Doncic has also never been known as a defensive stalwart or even a two-way player, so to expect anything else from him at this point in his career is setting expectations too high. Generational as he is, a player’s game adapts only if progress is there.
Some even mention that James being on a team this dysfunctional is a disservice to him, harming his legacy.
James has had an undeniable career. Being a part of NBA pop culture, the Heatles, going back to Cleveland and making history with a 3-1 comeback and even his championship with the Lakers. Those are not things anyone can take from him, as he’s been playing the game for a long time, the longest of anyone in NBA history.
Overall, the Lakers have actual roster construction issues, and to push that aside for legacy conversations is disingenuous at best and outright harmful at worst.