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Jaylen Brown is coming off a legacy-defining season.
The eight-year NBA veteran made his third All-Star team, then won Eastern Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP while helping the Boston Celtics to their first NBA championship since 2008. It’s the kind of effort that puts him in the pantheon of Celtics history and squashes criticism of his $304 million contract extension that made him the highest-paid player in league history when he signed it.
What it didn’t do was land him a spot on the U.S. team for the Paris Olympics. Brown wasn’t included in the first cut for the final roster that assembled in Las Vegas this week for training camp. When Kawhi Leonard withdrew Wednesday (which left a roster spot open), Brown was left out again.
Instead, Team USA chose Brown’s Celtics teammate Derrick White to replace Leonard. Here’s how Brown responded on social media when the news broke:
Brown followed up with another tweet implying that Nike, which outfits Team USA, had something to do with his exclusion from the team.
Brown is a sneaker free agent, but was under contract with Adidas through 2021. He also has Previous problem with Nike which dates back to founder Phil Knight’s criticism in 2022 of his friend Kyrie Irving when Irving was suspended by the NBA.
The United States team responds
USA Basketball CEO Grant Hill denied Wednesday night that Nike had anything to do with roster decisions.
USA Basketball’s Grant Hill on Jaylen Brown’s posts seemingly suggesting Nike was behind his Olympic snub: “For a lot of my career, I wore Fila. It was supposed to be a joke. We’re proud of our partners, obviously… It’s about building a team.” image.twitter.com/Oh7LvSaUCW
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) July 11, 2024
“I wore FILA gear for a lot of my career,” Hill said, laughing. … “Obviously, at USA Basketball we’re proud of our members. But it’s all about building a team. …
“There are 12 spots available. You have to put together a team. One of the hardest things is leaving out people that I’m a fan of, that I’m looking forward to seeing… The responsibility I have is to put together a team, a team that complements each other, a team that fits together, a team that gives us the best chance of success. Whatever theory there is, it’s nothing more than that.”
Will this extend to Boston?
Cryptic social media activity is a hallmark of the modern professional athlete experience, and Brown’s tweet is a prime example.
The ambiguous use of emojis is on par with the removal of team references on social media during contract disputes as a sign of discontent. This ambiguity conveys a message but leaves something out.
In this case, the ambiguity allows him to express his displeasure without directly criticizing his teammate’s selection for the Olympic team. Not that White and everyone else in Boston are incapable of doing the math in this case. And it’s not that Brown isn’t aware of that.
Brown has certainly earned serious consideration for a spot on the Olympic roster; being disappointed at not making it is a natural reaction. Throwing around conspiracy theories is another matter entirely.
Why did Team USA select Derrick White?
As Hill explained, building an Olympic roster isn’t like selecting an All-Star team or an All-NBA team. Beyond the best players on the roster, it’s about being fit and building a team that can compete against the rest of the world’s best, rather than simply selecting the 12 best players available.
In this case, Team USA lost an elite defender in Leonard, a seven-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection and two-time Defensive Player of the Year. In selecting White, it added another elite perimeter defender and an exceptional two-way player.
White earned All-Defensive honors for the second consecutive season while averaging one steal and 1.2 blocks per game as a point guard. He’s able to contain the opponent’s best perimeter player, challenge shots at the rim and confidently knock down 3-pointers (39.6 percent on 6.8 attempts per game last season) on the other end of the floor.
It’s a valuable skill set that also played a big role in Boston’s NBA championship win this season. It’s understandable why Team USA has made it a priority.