It’s the best of both worlds: the confidence of knowing you can win it all after you get over the hoop hump and the incentive to avoid complacency and prove a point to the rest of the basketball world that tried to rain on the Banner No. 18 parade while disrespecting superstars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. There is no shortage of motivation for the Progeny of the Parquet to become the first team since the 2017-2018 Warriors to win back-to-back NBA titles and the first Boston sports team to repeat the feat since the 2003-2004 Patriots.

Remember when the Patriots won football games, right?

Tatum was mocked and given superstar honors for his uninspired performance on the U.S. Olympic team, failing to see the floor in two games and going 0 for 16 on jump shots. Brown was conspicuously passed over as Kawhi Leonard’s replacement for that Olympic team despite reaching the Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals MVP trophies.

The hoops cognoscenti put an asterisk next to the Celtics championship because of who they played and who didn’t play for their opponents. The Heat’s Jimmy Butler missed the entire first-round series. Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell was hors de hoops for the final two games of the second round, and Pacers All-Star Tyrese Haliburton was injured in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals and never returned. The Celtics defeated Dallas in five games to reach the confetti-covered NBA summit, avoiding Denver and three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić.

NBA icon and TNT analyst Shaquille O’Neal last month called out the Celtics for having “the easiest run ever to that championship,” signaling that they had yet to prove their championship bona fides.

Shaq inspired many nicknames during his playing days. The Celtics can call him the Big Doubter.

But he’s not the only one.

Former Celtics center Kendrick Perkins echoed these thoughts to some extent last month, saying, “No one in the NBA is afraid of the Boston Celtics right now.” Perk proclaimed that teams like the Knicks and 76ers filled their rosters with bold moves this offseason because they believe the Celtics are winnable.

Franchise cornerstones Tatum and Brown with a chip on their shoulders are music to the ears of Celtics fans.

“I’m extremely motivated for obvious reasons,” Brown said at Celtics Media Day.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens brought 13 players from last year’s team to try to win it back for Banner No. 19. Usually, staying that way is a recipe for malaise.

The Celtics’ history that led to the trading of Marcus Smart and Robert Williams for Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis was that of a smug, self-aggrandizing, self-proclaimed group that acted like champions without winning a championship.

But with the incentive to silence critics, individually and collectively, and the maniacal Joe Mazzulla leading the charge, boredom should be unlikely for a group that posted the sixth-best scoring margin in NBA history (plus-10.72 ), regular season and postseason combined. , and never lost more than two consecutive games.

“They understand the purpose they have,” Stevens said. “What we should have is the confidence to get through anything if we have the right mentality and attitude.”

The team must also adopt the Mazzulla mentality, the coaching version of the Mamba mentality. Rhode Island’s best instills in his team a mentality that is fierce, fearless, focused, metaphysical and, if we’re being honest, a little bizarre.

He delivered the most Mazzulla quote ever on Monday when asked about the pressure he felt to maximize the championship window with an ownership change looming and draconian CBA fines aimed at shortening the championship window.

“Zero, no pressure,” he said. “We’ll all be dead soon, and it won’t really matter anymore. So there is no pressure. You’re either going to win or you’re not going to win.”

Um, okay, Joe.

Mazzulla has taken the Jedi mind-trick stance that the Celtics are trying not to repeat.

Whatever they believe, there will be challenges for the Celtics. They will be targeted and will be without Porzingis for the first part of the season. The Latvian big man, who unleashed Brown’s playmaker as an unlikely BFF last season, is still recovering from the ankle he injured in the NBA Finals. However, he is ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation and could be back before the end of the calendar year.

In his absence, the workload on the ageless Al Horford will increase. The Celtics will back Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman and Neemias Queta by committee. Getting Horford, who hasn’t played in back-to-backs the past two seasons, to the finish in one piece is imperative.

However, the Celtics were without Porzingis for twelve of their nineteen playoff games last season and still managed to go 16-3, the second-highest postseason winning percentage since the NBA expanded to all-best in 2002-03. of-seven-series.

There will be maddening situations for the Celtics, especially with their obsession/reliance on the three-point shot. The Three For All C plan to launch even more shots from beyond the arc this year than last year, when they scored the most points per possession (1.22) in NBA history.

The math is clear, Mazzulla would tell you.

This also applies to the mission.

“It’s all about what you’re trying to achieve, and we’re trying to achieve greatness,” Tatum said. “We were so close… and we finally knocked down the door.

“So yes, it feels different to be here as a champion, knowing what it takes and wanting to be on top of the mountain as often as possible.”

The Celtics have the talent to return to the NBA’s mountaintop and the motivation to want to shout at their opponents.

That’s as perfect a combination as Larry Bird and Bill Walton operating the pick-and-roll, and it makes it unwise to pick against them.

Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @cgasper and on Instagram @cgaspersports.