Jaylen Brown Is Convinced Nike Kept Him Off Team USA, Which Grant Hill Denies

Team USA got its first exhibition game under its belt on Wednesday night, beating a formidable Canada squad comfortably in Las Vegas. However, the discussion on Thursday wasn’t about the terrifying defense the Americans showed or how fun the Stephen Curry-LeBron James combo looks on the court together for the first time in a USA Basketball uniform. Instead, it was about the roster shakeup that took place when Kawhi Leonard pulled out of the Olympics with continued knee soreness and was replaced by Celtics guard Derrick White.

White joins teammates Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum on the roster, but conspicuously absent is Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, who has been vocal about his desire to be on the team and is not happy by his exclusion from the replacement spot. Grant Hill has looked to diffuse the situation by noting their task is to build the best team, and sometimes that means taking a great role player over a great star player to fill a need. In this case, that’s someone comfortable in shorter bursts playing off the ball as a shooter and doing the little things on both ends. White certainly fits the bill, but Brown would argue he’s capable of all of that as well.

The Celtics star wing has focused his frustration on sneaker giant Nike, who sponsors Team USA, believing they were the driving force in keeping him — an adidas athlete — off the roster in favor of a Nike player in White.

This follows in a long line of roster conspiracies on both the men’s and women’s side dating back to the Dream Team’s exclusion of Isiah Thomas. It’s also not the first time Nike has come up in one, as Candace Parker’s exclusion as an adidas athlete drew some murmurs it was partially about adding Nike athletes — although in that case more of the focus was on the UConn-Tennessee rivalry and Parker believing Geno Auriemma’s role with USA Basketball kept her off the team.

It’s not the first time Brown has taken aim at the Swoosh, as he did the same back when they dropped his friend Kyrie Irving.

Grant Hill addressed the controversy on Wednesday night, joking about being a longtime FILA athlete before again explaining the goal is to build the best team possible and considering fit.

That won’t satiate Brown, who will likely carry this frustration forward, and there won’t ever really be a way for USA Basketball or Nike to prove it wasn’t a factor. Tatum was also asked about it and clearly was trying not to upset anyone with his answer — it’s a particularly difficult spot when one of his teammates got added over another.

This year’s USA squad does feature a lot of Nike/Jordan athletes, but that’s also in part because they sponsor a majority of players in the NBA. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton, Bam Adebayo, and Derrick White all either have Nike/Jordan signatures or wear Nikes. But Stephen Curry (Under Armour/Curry Brand), Anthony Edwards (adidas), Joel Embiid (Skechers), and, before he was replaced, Kawhi Leonard (New Balance), all represent other sneaker companies.

If nothing else, Brown has found his motivation for next year coming off of a championship, but after seemingly putting to rest the questions of internal friction between Boston’s stars by winning a title, those will once again reappear thanks to USA Basketball.