Jaylen Brown opened the door Wednesday, and Stephen A. Smith happily stepped through.
After Team USA tabbed Boston Celtics guard Derrick White as Kawhi Leonard's replacement for its 2024 Paris Olympics squad, Brown reacted with a pair of social posts suggesting he was upset about not getting the call, and that Nike -- Team USA's jersey sponsor -- played a role in his snub.
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Brown has been critical of Nike in the past, calling out the company in 2022 after founder Phil Knight chastised Kyrie Irving for sharing an anti-Semitic film on social media. And while USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill denied Brown's beef with Nike had anything to do with Brown's roster omission, Smith clearly felt otherwise with a strongly-worded message for Brown on Twitter/X.
"Do y’all believe me now?" Smith wrote. "Yo @FCHWPO, do I need to reveal my sources now? Is it not obvious now?
"How in the hell is a $300M man — now a champion and an NBA Finals MVP— who’s clearly a top-two player on the @celtics and a Top-15 player in the world, NOT chosen for Team-USA? B/c his teammate NOT named Tatum is selected before him? Come on y’all!!!"
There's additional backstory here: Back on May 26, Smith claimed on ESPN's First Take that an "NBA source" told him Brown is "not liked because of his I-am-better-than-you attitude" and is "not as marketable as he should be." Brown fired back at Smith later that day by posting "State your source" on Twitter/X, then trolled the ESPN personality at the Celtics' victory parade by wearing a T-shirt featuring that same message.
Yet Smith apparently feels Brown's Team USA snub -- and subsequent reaction -- validated his original point.
UPDATE (12:30 p.m. ET): Brown isn't backing down; the Celtics star posted "(I'm) not afraid of you or your resources" in an apparent shot at Nike (or Smith).
Brown has a very similar skill set to Leonard and has experience playing for Team USA at the 2019 FIBA World Cup, so his omission is a bit of a head-scratcher. Then again, the U.S. is loaded with offensive talent, so perhaps Hill simply felt the team needed a role player like White who could provide excellent defense and ball movement and be comfortable with a limited role.
Team USA won its exhibition opener over Canada on Wednesday and will travel to Abu Dhabi to play Australia on Monday, with White expected to make his debut there.
