The Boston Celtics broke a 12-year streak of not qualifying for the NBA Finals in 2010 when the team’s current small forward, Jayson Tatum, was just 12 years old. On Sunday night, he was not only the most important player to lead the historic franchise back to the Larry O’Brien Trophy series, he is also the first in history to win the Larry Bird award.

The NBA decided that in its iconic 75th season it would present for the first time the awards for the Most Valuable Players of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, and in the first case this award is given in honor of one of the Celtics’ greatest legends, the legendary Larry Bird.

The glorious history of the Boston Celtics

In a franchise with the history and 17 championships that Boston has, Tatum is precisely the standard bearer and the face that seeks to bring back the Celtics’ past glories, even becoming during this series the second youngest player (24 years old) to score 1,500 points in the postseason.

With a good long range shot, but more importantly a skill set both offensively and defensively, Tatum is a great heir to Bird’s glories.

Jayson Tatum honored Kobe Bryant

Upon receiving the Larr Bird award, Tatum did not hesitate to show the admiration he has for Kobe Bryant, who is his childhood idol, despite the fact that it was “Black Mamba” who led the Los Angeles Lakers to a seven-game victory over the Celtics in the aforementioned 2010 NBA Finals.

Now, Tatum and the Celtics will look to surpass the Lakers as the franchise with the most NBA championships when they face in the NBA Finals the Golden State Warriors, who won the Western Conference crown by beating the Dallas Mavericks in five games.

Stephen Curry, winner of the Magic Johnson award

In the case of the Western Conference, the first winner of the Magic Johnson award was Stephen Curry, the Most Valuable Player of the aforementioned series.

Source: Marca