History with the Memphis Grizzlies and the NBA Finals has repeated itself again.

Five years ago, the last time the Grizzlies were sellers at the NBA trade deadline andtraded their starting center to the eventual NBA champions. That player was Marc Gasol in 2019 to the Toronto Raptors.

Memphis traded Xavier Tillman Sr. in February of this season to the Boston Celtics. And now, Tillman is an NBA champion after the Celtics closed out their five-game NBA Finals series with the Boston Celtics.

The Grizzlies also notably traded starting power forward Pau Gasol in 2008 to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers won the Western Conference, but lost in the finals that season. They went on to win the championship the following year.

Tillman spent his first three full seasons with the Grizzlies after being a second round pick in 2020. He started 56 games and made 207 regular season appearances with Memphis. He also started 12 playoff games over the past two seasons.

The Grizzlies traded Tillman after it became clear that this season's injury-riddled squad wouldn't make the playoffs. Tillman was in the final year of his contract.

With the Celtics, Tillman made two starts and mostly operated as the third center behind Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford. When Porzingis was injured in the NBA Finals, Tillman made a noticeable impact in Game 3 with his defense and knocking down a critical 3-pointer during a big third quarter run.

Outside of his Game 3 outburst, Tillman played a small role in the series.

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Damichael Cole is the Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for The Commercial Appeal. Contact Damichael at damichael.cole@commercialappeal.com. Follow Damichael on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DamichaelC.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Former Grizzlies center Xavier Tillman wins championship with Celtics