Jaylen Brown Thinks Nike Played Role in Team USA Snub

Jaylen Brown said he called Derrick White right away after sharing frustrations over the Team USA selection process last week to congratulate him. The US national team selected White to replaced Kawhi Leonard, who backed out before exhibitions began in a move the Clippers have now contested wasn’t Leonard’s decision.

“I called Derrick right away just to make sure there was no confusion,” Brown said. “My love for you and all of that, he knew that … but you don’t always have to make anything public. Me and D.White are good.”

White joined teammates in Abu Dhabi over the weekend after Brown both shared emojis that seemed to question the decision to not name him an injury replacement and tweeted at Nike, accusing them of having a role in the decision. Brown confirmed that was his intention in the later deleted tweet when asked by CLNS Media about the post on Monday.

“I do for sure (think they had a role in me being left off the team),” Brown said. “There’ll be more stuff to come with that, but as of now, I’m not gonna comment on it.”

Brown said he was happy to see teammates Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday and White represent a quarter of the 2024 Olympic roster, and wasn’t surprised by the snub. He’ll use it as motivation, he added, and that he’s fired up over the decision to leave him off the roster. I love it, he said.

Al Horford and other teammates have already discussed returning to the gym in Boston, and Brown looks forward to running the roster back nearly in full. Getting over the hump of winning a championship is great, Brown said, but now they’re back at square one trying to repeat. There’s more motivation and expectations that follow winning a championship. He sat court side on Monday at Celtics-Lakers alongside former and current Chicago Sky players Kysre Gondrezick and Angel Reese.

“(The championship) is over now,” Brown said. “Now we gotta get back to work.”