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Team USA head to the 2024 Olympics with a star-studded roster as they look to defend their basketball gold medal in Paris, but one man who is not on the squad is Jaylen Brown.
The Boston Celtics guard is fresh off winning his first NBA championship and the award of Finals MVP, but he was not picked as part of national team director Grant Hill’s original squad.
Not long after the original squad announcement, the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard was forced to withdraw from the Games. Brown would have been a suitable replacement for Leonard, especially considering his recent form, but before long his Celtics teammate Derrick White had been drafted in instead.
Brown is perhaps the biggest name not on the roster, and his snub led him to post cryptic messages on X, formerly known as Twitter, including one saying: “@nike this what we doing?”
“I’m not afraid of you or your resources”, he posted later.
Those posts were made soon after White was announced as the player to take Leonard’s place, and Brown told CLNS reporter Bobby Manning that he felt the sportswear giant had something to do with his omission.
“I do, for sure. There be more stuff to come with that,” Brown said.
“As of now, I’m not going to comment on it.”
Nike is one of the main sponsors of Team USA, and Brown has previously been critical of the company. In 2022, he tweeted about Nike’s run-in with Kyrie Irving, asking: “Since when did Nike care about ethics?”
The 27-year-old is not currently signed with a sponsor, but did wear Nike shoes during the NBA playoffs.
Hill dismissed any idea that Nike may have influenced who he picked, maintaining that all decisions were made for basketball reasons and saying that “whatever theories that might be out there, they’re just that”.
“You get 12 spots, and you have to build a team,” Hill told a press conference early in July.
“And 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.
“But that’s my responsibility. And it’s tough. It’s tough to have conversations, tell people that they’re not on the team,” he added.
“I’m trying to win and I’m trying to put together the right pieces that fit and give us a chance to win.”
Regarding White, Brown said that he had called his teammate “just to make sure there’s no confusion” around his feelings, adding that “me and D-White are good”.
USA men’s basketball roster
Bam Adebayo (Miami Heat), Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns), Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors), Anthony Davis (Los Angeles Lakers), Kevin Durant (Pheonix Suns), Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves), Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers), Tyrese Haliburton (Indiana Pacers), Jrue Holiday (Boston Celtics), LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers), Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics), Derrick White (Boston Celtics).
