Starting 5: Behind the scenes at Celtics Media Day

Jaylen Brown and the Celtics brought some hardware to their 2024-25 Media Day.

THE LINEUP 🏀
What’s inside today’s edition?
New Season, Same Goal: Celtics embrace the expectations entering 2024-25
Quotables: How the C’s celebrated their title this summer
On The Ground In Boston: The Celtics mixed business with fun at Media Day
W Playoffs: Finals rematch set for the Semis, plus preview tonight’s ESPN doubleheader
Nat’s Finals Frames: 10 times Nathaniel S. Butler perfectly captured a championship moment
BUT FIRST … ⏰
Hit the lab with Holmgren … and lock in for a W Playoff doubleheader
Go behind the scenes with Thunder star Chet Holmgren as he hones his game in a private workout ahead of the 2024-25 season.
An ESPN WNBA Playoff doubleheader features the Sun and Lynx looking for sweeps, while the Fever and Mercury try to force Game 3s.
On Thursday, the Denver Nuggets host their Media Day (11 am ET, Live in the NBA App), before taking on the Celtics in the NBA Abu Dhabi Games on Oct. 4 & 6.
1. NEW SEASON, SAME GOAL: CELTICS EMBRACE EXPECTATIONS

“When you lose, it’s hard,” said Jaylen Brown at Celtics Media Day Tuesday. “Year after year, we were close. But those were years, my heart was broken … This summer, my heart wasn’t broken.”
Last year, the Celtics entered Media Day coming off a Game 7 loss in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden — the same building where the Warriors hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2022.
On Tuesday, Boston entered Media Day as the reigning NBA champions, four weeks away from raising a record 18th banner into the TD Garden rafters.
“I think the important thing is being proud of what we did last season. Last year was amazing. We were an incredible team and we made history.”

But now, a new journey begins for the Celtics, who echoed their coach Joe Mazzulla by describing this season as a 2025 title chase rather than a 2024 title defense.
and what it took, and we’re trying to go win again.”
The challenge of winning back-to-back titles is familiar to Jrue Holiday, who won the 2021 Finals with the Bucks before capturing a second ring in Boston.
When asked about those challenges, both Holiday — and Brown — drew parallels between this year’s expectations and the pressure they faced last season, when Boston finished with an 80-21 record (regular season and Playoffs), the 13th-best mark in NBA history.
Their key to meeting those expectations? Facing them head-on as a team, again.
you can either push through or go down … I’m excited to go through the journey with them.”
2. QUOTABLES: C’S SUMMER RECAP

The C’s are gearing up for another title push in 2024-25. But, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t reminisce on their championship summer at media day.
For 17-year veteran Al Horford, the title unlocked a long-awaited celebration after playing in 186 career playoff games before winning the Larry O’Brien Trophy — the most of any player in NBA history.
Horford said Tuesday. “Just bringing it to DR was an unbelievable feeling … I was very grateful for that, very happy to be able to share that moment.”
Meanwhile, two-time champ Jrue Holiday noted the significance of delivering a title to Beantown.
Holiday also earned himself an Olympic gold medal this summer with USA Men’s Basketball alongside Jayson Tatum and Derrick White, who both reached extensions with Boston this offseason.
Despite all the action, White needed just four words to sum up his summer…
And while Tatum had quite the offseason himself, the five-time NBA All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist and reigning NBA champion believes the best is yet to come.
3. ON THE GROUND AT CELTICS MEDIA DAY

The Boston Celtics were the final team on an NBA court last season, soaking in the moment of championship No. 18 on the confetti-strewn court at TD Garden.
One hundred days later, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the rest of the Celtics put the jerseys on again as the first team to hold Media Day on Tuesday at their practice facility – the Auerbach Center.
This year’s Media Day brought its usual mix of business and fun. Players took their official headshots and spoke with the local and national media — answering some thought-provoking questions and some on the more lighthearted side.
the first day of the season means it’s time to
as Tatum unveiled the new “Welcome to the Garden” edition of his Jordan JT3s
4. WNBA PLAYOFFS: FINALS REMATCH SET FOR SEMIFINALS

The Rematch Is Set: With New York’s win over Atlanta and Las Vegas’ win over Seattle, the Liberty and Aces swept their respective first-round series and are set to clash in the best-of-five semifinals, beginning Saturday in Brooklyn (time and TV info TBD).
Let’s break down how this 2023 Finals rematch came to be.
Liberty 91, Dream 82 (NY wins series 2-0)
Ionescu’s 36 points tied Cappie Pondexter’s Liberty record for most points in a playoff game — which also came against the Dream in 2010. Sabrina joined Cappie and Angel McCoughtry as the only players with 35+ pts and 5+ ast in a Playoff game
Aces 83, Storm 76 (LV wins series 2-0)
No team made a bigger leap in wins from 2023 (11-29) to 2024 (25-15) than the Storm, but Gabby Williams (20 pts), Nneka Ogwumike (16 pts, 10 reb) and Skylar Diggins-Smith (13 pts, 10 ast) couldn’t overcome Seattle’s slow start

Tonight’s ESPN doubleheader features another pair of Game 2s as Connecticut and Minnesota look to join New York and Vegas in the Semifinals.
Fever at Sun (7:30 ET, ESPN)
Mercury at Lynx (9:30 ET, ESPN)
In their regular season finale, the
in what could be her final home game. While Dee has yet to make an announcement about her future, the Mercury need a win tonight to ensure at least one more playoff game for Taurasi in the Valley
5. NAT BUTLER COLLECTION: 10 ICONIC FINALS PHOTOS
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. And photographer Nathaniel S. Butler hasn’t needed to lift a pencil to write his NBA story.
In his book “COURTSIDE: 40 Years of NBA Photography,” Butler’s legendary work comes into focus, encapsulating some of the greatest moments in NBA history.
In celebration of the book’s release on Tuesday, we’re sharing 10 of Butler’s timeless images from the sport’s biggest stage.