The Paris Olympics are rapidly approaching with no shortage of drama for Team USA's men's basketball team. The dominant storyline surrounding this year's squad has not been LeBron James and Stephen Curry finally teaming up or Joel Embiid's first national team experience. Instead, it's been about Jaylen Brown and Derrick White.
After Kawhi Leonard dropped out from the Paris Olympics, Team USA elected to choose White as the replacement over his Boston Celtics teammate. It came as a bit of a surprise given Brown is coming off a legendary playoff run in which he secured Finals MVP and is generally a cleaner 1:1 replacement for Leonard's talents than White as a long, physical forward. Brown has further called attention to the matter by first implying and then outright stating he believes his past criticism of Nike (a primary sponsor of Team USA and provider of all uniforms for the Olympics) played a role in the decision to pass over him.
Regardless of whatever politics may or may not have been at play behind the scenes, there are basketball reasons to consider. Team USA's managing director, Grant Hill, clearly wants that to be known. On Wednesday's episode of Undisputed on FS1, NBA reporter Rachel Nichols revealed Hill called her while the U.S. is in Abu Dhabi for exhibition matchups and defended his decision to go with White over Brown.
"Grant Hill called me from Abu Dhabi the other day to talk to me about the Jaylen Brown-Derrick White situation," Nichols said. "He made the point that the little things Derrick White does that are a little bit different in his role on the team and the fact that he can bring in someone who's a guard instead of a forward because of the way the rotation is shaking out. He made such micro points that it said to me that they think the micro points are going to be the difference whether they win or not. That's how close they think it's going to be."
Nichols also said Hill addressed the Nike storyline during their conversation.
"He addressed that directly with me," she said. "He said what he said publicly, too. He said there's absolutely no truth to it. He made the point publicly, 'I was a FILA athlete for most of my career and played on Nike-sponsored teams.' Now, Grant Hill has not criticized Nike the way Jaylen Brown has over and over again. I don't think it's a direct comparison. Grant absolutely insisted to me privately, and we go way, way back, that Nike had absolutely nothing to do with this."
The full segment can be found below.
.@Rachel__Nichols details her conversation with Grant Hill on Team USA choosing Derrick White over Jaylen Brown: pic.twitter.com/NYCoIFELUI
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) July 17, 2024
The "micro points" aspect holds up under inspection. Brown is excellent on both sides of the ball, and definitely better than White as an overall player, but White has garnered significant praise this past season for being king of the little things. Brown is a star but White is a star role player. Given Team USA is not lacking for scoring or defending at the forward spot with LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Jayson Tatum all on the roster already, you can follow the line of logic about needing someone who does the little things more than someone who does what those guys all do at a slightly lesser level.
Of course, it's also reasonable to believe Brown's overt criticism of Nike did not help his case. The influence of corporate politics does not stop at the baseline, after all.
This is a storyline Team USA will be battling for a while yet, but Hill clearly is doing what he can to put it to rest before the Games begin later this month.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Grant Hill Defended Derrick White, Jaylen Brown Team USA Decision to Rachel Nichols.
