Celtics Fan Vote Reveals MVP, Future Stars and the Team's Most Chaotic Personalities
We asked, you answered, and now, we can officially reveal the results for the Boston Celtics' batch of year-end awards!
Shout-out to everyone who participated. You played a pivotal role in helping us dole out invaluable hardware. From the Celtics' MVP and most underrated player to their best trash-talker and zombie apocalypse savior, you covered all the most important bases.
So, who won each category? Let's get to the big reveals.
Stats accurate as of Sunday, April 12. Contract data via Spotrac.
Who Is the Most Valuable Player?
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Winner: Jaylen Brown
Jayson Tatum not even registering as a tangential option is a major bummer. But hey, at least he's back. His absence from this exercise is also easier to stomach when Jaylen Brown had the type of season that landed him 96 percent of the votes. The workload he shouldered this year was insane.
Derrick White is the pick if catch-alls are your kink. Shout-out to anyone who put a strikethrough on "player," replaced it with "person" and wrote in Joe Mazzulla.
Who Is Most Underrated?
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Winner: Neemias Queta
Neemias Queta could have technically graduated from this discussion . With 68 percent of the vote, it's clear that he didn't. Considering he's the starting center for a top-five defense that people wanted to acquire another big man at the trade deadline, this sounds about right.
Big wings and combo forwards with shaky jumpers who bust their butt on the glass and defense are also "Most Underrated" catnip. It's clear Boston has cornered the market on them.
Who Is the Best Athlete?
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Winner: Jaylen Brown
If you wondering whether Jaylen Brown would face any genuine challengers, he most certainly did not. He received 78 percent of the votes. And frankly, he earned every one of them.
Brown still busts out the occasional nuclear jam and should get a bump because he was brave enough to partake in the Slam Dunk Contest in an era when the league can't even convince Mac McClung to defend his title.
Votes for Jayson Tatum (11 percent) are iffy post-Achilles injury. Jordan Walsh (7 percent) is a good sleeper when you take into account the share of his shots coming as dunks.
Who Is Most Likely To Be a 1st-Time All-Star In the Next 5 Years?
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Winner: Derrick White
Rolling with Derrick White significantly shrinks the window in which he has a realistic chance of doing it. That didn't bother the Celtics faithful. He grabbed 45 percent of the vote. You'll catch no arguments here. White could have racked up an All-Star appearance or two already. He's the best option.
Payton Pritchard is a fairly close runner-up after getting 37 percent of the vote. The interest level in him rises if you think the Celtics will soon move on from White.
Who Has the Best Contract?
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Winner: Payton Pritchard
This was always going to come down to Payton Pritchard and Neemias Queta. The former emerged victorious by topping 63 percent of ballots.
Boston having Payton Pritchard under lock and key through 2027-28, at under 5 percent of the salary cap each year, is highway robbery. On steroids. Brad Stevens' front office deserves a ton of credit for getting additional team-controlled years on Queta and Jordan Walsh, too.
Who Has the Worst Contract?
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Winner: Sam Hauser
Celtics fans (mostly) don't want to hear about Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum having over a quarter of a billion dollars apiece left on their contracts. I respect it.
Sam Hauser getting nearly half of the votes and easily beating out Tatum (18 percent), Brown (10 percent) and Derrick White (17 percent) is nevertheless surprising. He has three years left on his deal valued at under 7 percent of the salary cap. If that's your worst deal, you're doing something right.
Who Is the Best Trash-Talker?
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Winner: Jaylen Brown
If we adjusted this category to "Who is the best trash-talker to referees," would anyone aside from Jaylen Brown receive a vote?
Not that it matters. Brown wins the honor with 46 percent of the vote. Because facial expressions count, though, Payton Pritchard put up a real fight, receiving 41 percent of first-place nods.
Who Is Most Likely To Have a Burner Account?
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Winner: Jaylen Brown
To be honest, if Jaylen Brown doesn't have a burner account on which he propagandizes no-calls against himself and the Celtics at large, we should all be terribly disappointed. This is to say: The right person won this category. He got more than half the votes, too.
Joe Mazzulla (34 percent) definitely has a secret Twitter account dedicated to firing off The Town fanfic. Also, I'm pretty sure anyone who wears sleeves underneath their jersey and cuts their hair like Baylor Scheierman (10 percent) is legally required to have multiple burners.
Who Are You Taking With You Into the Zombie Apocalypse?
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Winner: Joe Mazzulla
Based on his sound bites alone, Joe Mazzulla gives off the vibe of someone who would know how to provide for himself and his own while wandering in a post-apocalyptic wasteland teeming with the undead. Congratulations to Celtics fans for not overthinking this, and giving him nearly two-thirds of the first-place selections.
Jaylen Brown (19 percent) and Derrick White (10 percent) came closest to dethroning their head honcho. I'm on board with the latter.His shot-blocking in transition leads me to believe he'd sacrifice his body for others—which fellow narcissists such as myself should appreciate.
Who Is Most Likely To Be Playing Overseas In 2 Seasons?
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Winner: Max Shulga
Celebration is in order for Nikola Vučević. He hasn't scarred Celtics fans enough to steal first place from Max Shulga (36 percent)
Defaulting to end-of-the-bench guys might was the safer and, thus, correct pick. John Tonje came close to edging out Shulga; he received 34 percent of votes.
Of course, Vooch still finished third (19 percent). And to be fair, at 35 and with free agency on the horizon, he is entering prime "International player who lands another one- or two-year deal before taking his talents overseas and dominating as he inches closer to 40" territory.
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