Jaylen Brown continues to be in headlines and it's not about winning an NBA championship and or Finals MVP.
The Celtics All-Star has let it be known that he wasn't pleased about being left off Team USA's Summer Olympics roster last week, despite his teammate Derrick White getting the nod to replace Kawhi Leonard -- who withdrew from the team due to a knee injury.
In the wake of the news, Brown took to social media to fire off posts and even insinuated that Nike has played a role in the decision to not be invited as a replacement. At the ESPYs, where Brown picked up an award for "Best Championship Performance," Brown spoke on the red carpet and said "one day I'll share my story," when asked about his feelings on being snubbed by Team USA.
On Monday during the Celtics Summer League win over the Lakers in Las Vegas, Brown was in attendance and double-down once again when it came to his stance of Nike being the sole reason why he was not selected to play at the Summer Games in Paris.
"I do, for sure," Brown said when asked if he believed Nike had something to do with the decision not to be called. "There'll be more stuff to come of that. But, as of now, I'm not going to comment on it."
While Brown has a valid point on being upset about Team USA's roster snub, he also cleared the air Monday about his comments being towards Nike and are not in any way a slight against his championship teammate White -- when it comes to him being chosen as a late call-up instead of Brown.
"I called Derrick right away," Brown told reporters. "Just to make sure there's no confusion, my love for you and all of that. He knew that, and he did. You don't always gotta make everything public. Me and D-White are good. … My reaction was I was happy for D-White. Stoked to have so [many] of our guys on there. So I was happy for those guys. But I wasn't surprised."
USA basketball executive director Grant Hill, noted that finding the right replacement for Leonard was not an easy task. Even though Brown is coming off both Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals most valuable player awards on his way to an NBA title, it may have been White's 3-point shooting and defensive capabilities that would fill a need for Team USA's roster.
"This is about putting together a team," Hill told reporters last week. "Just kind of overall, you have incredible interest from an abundance of talent that we have here in the United States. I've talked a little about when we assembled this roster."You have 12 spots; you have to build a team. One of the hardest things is leaving people off the roster that I’m a fan of, that I look forward to watching throughout the season, throughout the playoffs."
As for Brown and his preparation for a title defense for the upcoming 2024-25 campaign, the Celtics star clearly has another chip on his shoulder for some added motivation to go back-to-back.
"Right when that burden gets alleviated, you get more motivation to follow it," Brown said. "For me, it's back to ground one. My mindset is championship is over now. Now, we gotta get back to work."
Joel Pavón
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