2024 NBA Finals: Sports world reacts to Celtics' championship win - ESPN

The Boston Celtics are NBA champions after defeating the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. With the victory, they clinched their 18th franchise title, the most in NBA history.

The Celtics were led by Jayson Tatum with a 31-point, 11-assist and eight-rebound performance. Tatum led the Celtics in points, rebounds and assists this playoffs, becoming the sixth player to lead a title-winning team in those categories during the playoffs.

Jaylen Brown was named Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals, averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.6 steals in the series. He is the first player to win NBA Finals MVP without making an All-NBA team that same season since Andre Iguodala in 2015.

Payton Pritchard made sure the Celtics had all of the momentum heading into halftime. Boston's guard didn't play the entire half, but head coach Joe Mazzulla inserted Pritchard into the game with four seconds left in the second quarter.

Pritchard immediately made an impact by swishing a 49-foot 3-pointer, the longest made shot in the Finals in the last 25 years. The shot put the Celtics up 67-46 going into halftime. It was Pritchard's third buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the 2024 playoffs, the last one coming in Game 2 of the Finals to end the third quarter.

The deep 3-pointer prompted reaction from some of the sports world's biggest names.

PRITCHARD

Bro i hate this dude