The Boston Celtics' quest to repeat as NBA champions was already on perilous ground when they lost Jayson Tatum to a devastating injury. They were officially dispatched from the playoffs by the New York Knicks in six games and now must figure out a path forward without their best player for an extended period. That means the franchise is entering a different era than the one they've enjoyed over the past nine years, which have featured six trips to the Eastern Conference finals, two to the NBA finals and one Larry O'Brien trophy.

LeBron James had an interesting thought on their stumbles when prompted by Steve Nash on the latest Mind the Game podcast, offering that Boston may get occasionally disinterested by all of their success.

"Seems like they get bored sometimes with the—I don't want to say the process because s--- they are who they are," James said. "When you look at Tatum and [Jaylen] Brown, this is years and years and years and years, they've punched their 10,000 hours. But sometimes it seems like they get a little bored because of how great they are."

This really isn't a pejorative statement. Saying a team has so much success that they get bored with it is actually a great compliment. And it's probably something that James himself has felt over his two-decade-plus run in the NBA. It's certainly not something unique to the Celtics or an indictment of their two best players—Tatum and Brown—as every championship or championship-adjacent club throughout sports has to constantly fight against complacency.

Winning is hard. Even when all you do is win.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as LeBron James Thinks Celtics Get Bored by Their Greatness.

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