When the U.S. males’s basketball staff introduced on Wednesday morning that the Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard could be leaving the staff to deal with the upcoming NBA season, Jaylen Brown appeared like a attainable alternative. The Boston Celtics guard performs an analogous place to Leonard, and is rising from a season during which he made his third All-Star staff, helped lead his staff to an NBA championship, and was named Finals MVP.
As a substitute, Workforce USA selected Brown’s teammate, Derrick White, who will be part of fellow Celtics participant Jason Tatum and Jrue Vacation to spherical out the 12-man roster heading into the Paris Olympics on the finish of the month.
Maybe understandably, Brown wasn’t thrilled with the choice, and the Celtics star took to social media shortly after the information broke. Solely it wasn’t Workforce USA he known as out—it was the model behind the little swoosh on the staff’s jerseys.
In a publish on X late on Wednesday, Brown challenged Nike, one of many greatest sponsors for the U.S. on the Paris Olympics and longtime associate of USA Basketball, asking the attire firm “this what we doing?”
@nike this what we doing ?
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) July 10, 2024
Not like a few of Workforce USA’s greatest stars, together with Kevin Durant, teammate Tatum, and LeBron James—who has a lifetime deal estimated to be valued round $1 billion—Brown doesn’t have a signature take care of Nike. He had a take care of Adidas for the primary 5 years of his profession, and since then has not signed to a different model. Over the previous three seasons, the guard has typically worn Nike’s Kobe Bryant line, however has additionally worn New Steadiness.
To make sure, not everybody on Workforce USA is doing enterprise with the Oregon-headquartered attire firm. The Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry has a take care of Below Armour, and Minnesota Timberwolves rising star Anthony Edwards signed a take care of Adidas this week.
Maybe much more pertinent, apart from being a free agent within the shoe market, Brown has been a vocal critic of Nike prior to now.
After Kyrie Irving, the controversial level guard for the Dallas Mavericks and former Celtic, shared an anti-Semitic movie on Twitter when he was on the Brooklyn Nets again in 2022, Nike founder Phil Knight mentioned Irving had “crossed a line.”
Brown then took a shot on the firm on social media, criticizing Nike’s ethics and implying the model was virtue-signaling.
Since when did Nike care about ethics? https://t.co/f8t2eY994v
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) November 10, 2022
Extra just lately, through the Celtics’ run to the championship this 12 months, Brown might have poked the bear as soon as extra. The 27-year-old guard wore varied Kobe footwear all through the season, solely with the ever present Nike swoosh notably absent.
Fill within the clean pic.twitter.com/IzDgXcYjb7
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) December 26, 2023
In the meantime, White is coming off what was arguably his greatest season within the NBA since getting into the league in 2017. The 30-year guard averaged 15 factors a recreation final season taking pictures 46% from the sector, and was instrumental in serving to Boston to win the championship.
However Brown, who performs an analogous place, scored eight extra factors a recreation on the next taking pictures proportion, virtually 50%, and is extensively considered the second-best participant on the staff behind famous person Tatum. There are actually three members of the 2024 Boston Celtics on the U.S. Olympic squad.
Nike didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Fortune.
Following Brown’s newest publish on X, Workforce USA director Grant Hill denied that Nike had something to do with the choice to take White.
“The responsibility I have is to put together a team—and a team that complements each other, a team that fits, a team that will give us the best opportunity for success,” Hill mentioned. “And so whatever theories that might be out there, they’re just that. But that’s my responsibility.”
