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.
