‘Understood!’ The 259-day, 50,000-mile, feel-good odyssey to a Celtics championship.

How do you find the three J’s now?

If justification were a leap of faith, Mike Gorman, the Celtics’ virtuoso voice for 43 years, could bellow his timeless catchphrase on behalf of Mazzulla’s newly minted world titlists: “Got it!”

The elusive Larry O’Brien Trophy, golden and glorious, is back in Boston after 16 years in the NBA wilderness. Why it’s taken so long in recent years for a Celtics franchise with greatness in its DNA and rosters chock-full of talent to win the prize is a matter for another day.

Today, the Celtics are at the top of the basketball world. Rest base, the gnome has landed. For the children, that means one small trampoline jump for a mascot, one gigantic moon shot for the clover brothers from the public prosecutor’s office.

Goodbye, Kyrie. Hello, hardwood paradise.

There is no need to pit this banner-bearing group of champions against the princes in green who reigned before them. There will never be another Russell, Havlicek or Cousy. Don’t expect Bird, McHale or Parish to walk through that door again. Or to soon see the likes of Pierce, Garnett and Allen grace Legends Way.

This record-breaking club, put together with Auerbachian acumen by front-office impresarios Brad Stevens and Danny Ainge, was special in its own right. Brilliant in its grid construction. Sensational in its chemistry. Notable for his maturity and depth of leadership. Fascinating because of the professional growth of the coach. Sometimes maddening in his tics of lukewarm play. But indelibly memorable for its enduring excellence.

Dominance, your name is Celtics. Mazzulla’s roundball maestros orchestrated the franchise’s NBA-record 18th championship to the delight of 95-year-old Bob Cousy, the last survivor of the club’s inaugural title team in 1957, by establishing themselves as one of the greatest teams in one season of all time. time.

Riding a productive offense

Banner 18 is custom made, hand sewn and rolled out thanks to the J’s and their Bros racking up 64 wins in the regular season and outscoring every competitor afterward. With one big mischievous nod to their last doubters, the Causeway crew reeled off 11 straight postseason wins before a Finals Game 4 gift to the Mavericks and a Game 5 clincher in front of a crazed crowd at the Garden in a 16-3 tournament blitz .

The ’24 champions were so productive that they scored more regular season points (9,887) than any other team in Celtics history and posted the NBA’s highest offensive rating (122.2 points per 100 possessions) in modern time. Their party favors come in small boxes: diamond and emerald championship rings.

Celtics diehards also collected a few souvenirs, following a campaign in which Mazzulla’s snipers set an NBA record by winning three regular-season games by 50 points or more. Fans who have spent thousands of dollars on the secondary market for Finale tickets are proud to have proof of entry, while some deep-rooted customers can declare that they paid a royal ransom for a “Lucky’s 24-karat Gold Lobster Roll” in a Garden eatery.

Some fans may reminisce about the Celtics setting an NBA Finals record in their Game 1 blowout of the Mavericks when seven players buried at least two three-pointers: Tatum, Brown, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis and Sam Hauser.

Bench shooter Payton Pritchard, who brought the house down just before halftime of the Game 5 clincher by swinging one of his signature half-court, buzzer-beating heaves, might have wondered, “What about me?”

The airy, leggy Luke Kornet might have wanted some flowers too. After all, Kornet was excellent from the three-point range all season: a pure 1 on 1.

These Celtics offered something for everyone during their 50,000 air-mile odyssey from Day 1 of training camp on Oct. 2 to Day 259 on Monday, when time ran out to delirium in the finals.

For theology, there were Mazzulla’s numerous references to his Catholicism. The league’s youngest coach, at the age of 35, Mazzulla was a Crusader team primed for excellence from the start, as they showed by opening the season with twenty consecutive home wins.

Mazzulla has drawn inspiration and many life lessons from the Bible, including his favorite book Ecclesiastes, whose most famous passage begins: “There is a time for everything.”

This season was a time to mourn: Hall of Famer Bill Walton, a beloved member of the Celtics’ 1985-86 title team, died the day Mazzulla’s Celtics defeated the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals.

“As Celtic, how much he loved the game, how much he loved his teammates, how much he cared about winning, these values ​​are things we try to emulate,” Mazzulla said.

And there was a time for dancing – when Celtics Nation bowed after the title was secured.

Lots of hugs to go around

Mazzulla guided the Greens to victory after looking ill-suited for the job at times last season when he was thrust into the NBA bracket amid the Ime Udoka scandal. As former team leader Marcus Smart infamously noted, “He has been murdered many times” by critics, “rightly so.”

Frankly, Smart was part of the problem. His forceful personality complicated team chemistry and Mazzulla’s leadership. But that’s a matter for another day.

What mattered this season was that Mazzulla matured and the Celtics front office bolstered his staff with the hiring of assistant coaches Charles Lee and Sam Cassell and senior consultant Jeff Van Gundy.

What also mattered was that majority shareholder Wyc Grousbeck spent large amounts of money to back Stevens in acquiring two major game-changers, Holiday and Porzingis. They upended the balance of power in the league and cemented the Celtics as consensus favorites to win the title from the opening dribble of the season.

It was unfortunate for Grousbeck that his foray into prime time television with the sitcom ‘Extended Family’ failed and was quickly canceled. But it was a boon for Celtics fans that Grousbeck and his partners spent lavishly building a championship family of stars and role players.

Owning the Celtics has been very good for Grousbeck’s group, as the franchise’s value has risen to more than $4 billion since they bought it for $360 million in 2002. And fans seemed to realize that the owners, as Grousbeck told the Globe, lost money this season because of their heavy investments in championship-caliber talent.

“We do this out of love,” Grousbeck explained.

Okay then, big hugs everyone.

Hugs to Horford, the old man of the Green Sea, who won his first title on perhaps his last expedition. Horford was the epitome of poise and professionalism.

Hugs to Brown, who despite voters bypassing him for the first, second and third All-NBA teams, won both the Eastern Conference and Finals MVP trophies and proved himself worthy of the league’s richest contract. Also a hug for Brown paying tribute to Boston’s Terrence Clarke, the 19-year-old NBA prospect who tragically died in a car accident in 2021 during the All-Star Game dunk contest.

Hugs to Tatum, the first-team All-NBA standout who showed the world why he’s right to expect an even richer payday than Brown’s, the richest in league history. A season highlight for Deuce’s proud father occurred during All-Star Weekend, when Tatum met legend Larry Bird for the first time, a fitting foreshadowing of the day their numbers hang together from the Garden rafters.

Hugs to Holiday and White for smoothly replacing Smart and contributing more than even the greenest Green Teamer could have imagined. In a lasting Game 5 snapshot of their selflessness, White sacrificed at least one front tooth in a loose-ball srum en route to the win.

Toe hugs to Porzingis, the air traffic controller who immediately transformed the Celtics into an even bigger threat on both ends of the court.

Also, a hug to the bench brothers, from Pritchard and Hauser to Neemias Queta and Xavier Tillman, who have more than earned their duck boat berth.

In the final days of the campaign, Grousbeck wiped away his perceived balance sheet losses by proclaiming, “We get paid in parades.”

Sweet. Next summer it will be hard to beat a championship parade in the Hub. One last, thunderous hurray for the last NBA club standing.

Fans are paid in moments and memories, small scenes and panoramas that they can later close their eyes and remember vividly. These Celtics provided a treasure rich enough to cherish for a lifetime.

How do you find them now?

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Bob Hohler can be reached at [email protected].