The NBA season wrapped up Saturday night with the New York Knicks accomplishing what many of their fans thought was impossible: winning an NBA championship, the franchise’s first since 1973.
The Finals featured two of the league’s brightest stars, Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson and San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama, going head-to-head on the biggest stage.
Following the series, a panel at The Ringer ranked both players among the NBA’s top 100, alongside 98 of the league’s best, to help shape its annual player rankings.
The Boston Celtics had four players featured on the list. Guards Derrick White and Payton Pritchard were ranked 35th and 70th, respectively. Boston’s two cornerstone stars also appeared near the top of the rankings, with Jayson Tatum coming in at 13th and Jaylen Brown close behind at 14th.
The Ringer ranked the top 100 players in the NBA:
13. Jayson Tatum
14. Jaylen Brown
Are the Celtics' two superstar cornerstones ranked too low? 🤔🏀 pic.twitter.com/eAdjFEOhgL
— WEEI (@WEEI) June 17, 2026
While it was no shock to see Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama, and Nikola Jokic ranked above the Celtics duo, the positioning of Donovan Mitchell, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Anthony Edwards was far more debatable.
The Celtics remain just two years removed from an NBA title run in which they lost only three postseason games, capped by Brown earning both Eastern Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP honors.
The Celtics have fallen short in recent postseasons, exiting in the second round to the Knicks in 2025 and then in the first round to the Philadelphia 76ers this year. Those results drew heavy scrutiny, and fairly so, though Boston was without Tatum in the closing games of both series.
Around the league, those playoff outcomes have clearly influenced perception of the duo, with neither player cracking the top 12 in The Ringer’s rankings. Still, that feels like a strong overcorrection.
In Tatum’s absence, Brown guided the Celtics to a 56–26 record, good for second place in the Eastern Conference and a higher seed than eventual champion New York. Brown averaged 28.7 points per game, finishing fourth in the NBA in scoring, placed sixth in MVP voting, and earned All-NBA Second Team honors.
Tatum missed most of the 2026 season while recovering from an Achilles tear suffered last May, but he wasted little time reminding everyone why he is still one of the premier players in the sport. In limited action, he averaged nearly 22 points, along with 10 rebounds and 5 assists per game.
Even while appearing in just 16 regular-season games and six postseason contests, Tatum continued to show the consistency that has defined his career. A five-time All-NBA selection, he had also posted five straight seasons averaging 26 or more points before his 2025 injury, underscoring just how consistent and elite he has been throughout his career.
Much of the criticism directed at the two stems less from their play on the court and more from perceptions of who they are off it. Brown has faced scrutiny this offseason following a series of cryptic social media posts and comments made during livestreams.
I’ll “be quiet” / stop streaming if you “be quiet” and retire let’s give the people what they want https://t.co/uRiHDyvIHo
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) May 7, 2026
While those moments do not affect his performance on the floor, they have been viewed by some as red flags, particularly in light of his public back-and-forth with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and ongoing speculation about his relationship with his Celtics running mate.
Tatum has faced a similar wave of criticism, with some questioning whether his more reserved demeanor fits the profile of a true franchise cornerstone. Those doubts only grew when he missed Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers this season due to what was described as knee stiffness, watching from the sidelines as Boston suffered a collapse against a division rival. While the severity of the injury is known only to Tatum and the team, the decision to sit out such a high-stakes game inevitably sparked debate.
If the Celtics’ playoff shortcomings are being used against them, the standard feels inconsistent at best. Players like Luka Doncic and Anthony Edwards are ranked higher despite combining for just one Finals appearance. At the same time, Donovan Mitchell, who reached his first conference finals this season before being swept by the Knicks, is also placed higher than Boston’s wing duo.
Expectations in Boston will always be high. The Celtics are judged as a title-or-bust team every season, and anything less is treated as a disappointment. But in a league where parity reigns, and even the game’s biggest stars often capture only a single championship in their primes, the broader basketball discourse may be overcorrecting in its criticism of Boston’s core.
