"America is here baby"- Nick Young amped up for Boston's title win citing frustration with watching Europeans dominate league
Nick Young is happy that the Boston Celtics won the 2023-24 NBA Finals. He believes that the win against the Luka Doncic-led Dallas Mavericks was a win for the American brand of basketball.
On the Gil's Arena podcast, the 2018 NBA champion said he was tired of the European players taking center stage in the league. For Young, Boston winning against the Mavs was America winning.
“Let’s give it up for America. Because we won baby. America won baby. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown did it for America. They put Luka a** out. Oh my God! I got so tired of everybody talking about these foreigners and sh*t. America is here baby! It’s America’s league baby,” Nick Young said on Gils Arena Show.
Foreign players have been dominating the NBA for quite some time now. Last year, it was Serbian star Nikola Jokic-led Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat and won the title. Jokic was declared the Finals MVP, and locked up his third straight regular season MVP this season.
Since James Harden won the MVP award in 2017-18, every MVP has been born outside of the USA. Greece's Giannis Antetokounmpo won twice, Cameroonian Joel Embiid won once, and of course the aforementioned Jokic's back to back to back awards.
Nick Young says Jayson Tatum should have won the Finals MVP over Jaylen Brown
Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum just won his first NBA title at 26 and has been on cloud nine after delivering the Celtics’ first championship since 2008. One of the major discussions after the series was the MVP award. Jaylen Brown, who was largely considered number 2 behind Tatum won the award.
Of 11 votes, Jaylen Brown received seven and Jayson Tatum received just four. Since the Finals MVP was awarded to Brown, there are people who still believe that Tatum should have received the award.
2018 NBA champion Nick Young was one of them. The former LA Lakers player said that Jayson Tatum was the best player in the league and he should have won the award.
"Tatum is first," Nick Young said. "Every pass Brown got was from Tatum. I'm not about to disrespect Brown, because Brown is cold. But Tatum should have won Finals MVP. Tatum is cold, Tatum is the best player in the league.”
Tatum averaged 22.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 7.2 assists in the NBA Finals while he shot 38.8% from the field and 26.3% from the three-point line. On the other hand, Brown averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game. He shot 44.0% from the field and 23.5% from the three-point line.
One of the reasons that Brown got the edge over Tatum in the series was because of his defense on the other end of the floor. He averaged 1.6 steals and 0.8 blocks per game and also defended Luka Doncic for most of the series.