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Grant Hill explained why Jaylen Brown was selected for the U.S. national team.
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The U.S. basketball team beats Canada 86-72 in their first game of the Paris Olympics tour.
Celtics star Jaylen Brown slammed Nike on social media platform X after Team USA announced it had selected Derrick White, over the reigning NBA Finals MVP, to replace the injured Kawhi Leonard, who has withdrawn from competing in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
“@Nike is this what we’re doing?” Brown wrote to X.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith responded, engaging in a brief back-and-forth with Brown about his comments on the television show “First Take.”
Brown wore a black T-shirt that read “cite my sources” during the Celtics’ championship parade last month, a reference to a disagreement he had with Smith over comments Smith made earlier on ESPN’s “First Take.”
“Will everyone believe me? translator“Do I really need to reveal my source now? Isn’t it obvious already?” Smith wrote. “The $300 million man, now a champion, NBA Finals MVP, and clearly the top two players in the league, @Celtics Why aren’t the top 15 players in the world being selected for Team USA because their non-Tatum teammates were selected first? Come on guys!”
During the playoffs, Smith reported he had been told by anonymous sources that Brown’s attitude was negatively impacting his market value.
“Jaylen Brown isn’t underrated,” Smith said in May, “he’s just not well-liked because of his ‘I’m better than you’ attitude, and he knows it. That’s also why he’s not as marketable as he should be.”
“That’s information that an NBA source sent to me. I don’t know if that’s true or not,” Smith added. “I like Jaylen Brown and I know a lot of guys like Jaylen Brown, but again, when you think about marketability, that’s what that person is alluding to.”
Brown responded by asking Smith to reveal his source on X. Smith told Brown he would not, then continued his comments in response to Brown’s recent tweets about Nike.
Brown, who was named Eastern Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP this year, was left off both the All-NBA and Olympic teams but was named to his third NBA All-Star team in February.
The Celtics have a strong presence on the U.S. national team, with three of the 12 players on the roster from the Celtics, with White being selected as Leonard’s replacement while teammates Jayson Tatum and July Holiday were among the original selections.
Nike is a major sponsor of USA Basketball. USA Basketball director Grant Hill said it was USA Basketball, not Nike, that made the final decision to leave Brown off the team. Hill said it was his responsibility and that he was trying to select players to give the U.S. team a chance to win.
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