Was Nike the reason Jaylen Brown didn’t make it to Team USA’s Olympic basketball team? There has been some bad blood between the two sides ever since Brown called out the brand for “ethics” in 2022. The Celtics Shooting Guard is convinced Nike had a role to play in his exclusion and four-time Olympian Carmelo Anthony has come in support of the star.

Team USA is packed with stars for the games. From the experienced trio of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant to younger studs such as Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum, the team has every base covered. But keeping NBA success in mind, many considered it criminal that the selectors did not consider the Finals MVP, Jaylen Brown, not once, but twice.

On the July 22, episode of Podcast P,  Carmelo Anthony was asked about the polarizing situation. He spoke in support of Brown and said the player deserved an explanation for his snub.

“I think he should have got a shot. I think Paul should have got a shot. It is what it is like you can’t, for whatever reason it is, you can’t make it that obvious. For whatever reason, it is. They had to draw the line somewhere. Like this man bust his a**, he worked hard, Anthony said.

Brown was among the many surprise snubs when Team USA announced their initial pool of players for the upcoming Olympics. He averaged 23.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 70 games this season and was selected to play in his third All-Star game. Brown also won his first Finals MVP award and his first NBA championship

When Kawhi Leonard had to drop out due to injury concerns, many wanted Brown to be the replacement after a stellar postseason run with the Celtics. Instead, his teammate Derrick White was chosen, sparking major controversy.

 He takes everything that people say about him. He’s not marketable, he’s not this, he’s not that.” And he go win a championship and do it the way he did it. How he don’t get a shot at the USA team?.. So if it’s political, and I don’t like using that term political. But if it is something of that nature that we don’t understand, have a conversation with the man,” Melo said on Podcast P.

When White came into Team USA in place of Leonard, Grant Hill, the managing director of the U.S. men’s national team said, “One of the many things that I really love about Derrick, and particularly with this team, is I don’t feel like his role changes much with our team from what he does with the Celtics.” However, he didn’t offer an explanation as to why White was picked over Brown.

It’s tough to locate a particular reason Jaylen Brown wasn’t called up for the Paris Olympics. Championship nod aside, he was the best player for Boston during the entire postseason. Three of his teammates got the call, but the 27-year-old wasn’t even asked to step in when a spot opened up. The poor communication forced the ferocious guard to make his own judgments and ultimately fostered a messy situation with not only Team USA but also his teammates.

Soon after Derrick White was announced as Leonard’s replacement, Brown tweeted on July 11,“@nike this what we doing ?” Then on July 16, when he was asked if he believed Nike had a hand in his exclusion from Team USA, he said, “I do for sure. There will be more stuff to come with that. As of now, I’m not gonna comment on it.”  He also said he wasn’t “surprised” by the decision. But what is the reason behind the friction?

Well, Brown is not a Nike-sponsored athlete. He was an Adidas athlete when he arrived in the NBA, but became a sneaker free agent and wore various Nike shoes with the swoosh logo removed. He has been critical of Nike in the past. In 2022, when Nike co-founder Phil Knight said Kyrie Irving “stepped over the line” when he shared a link to an antisemitic film, Brown tweeted, “Since when did Nike care about ethics?”

Considering the severe outbreak of the controversy, there is a chance Jaylen Brown might not feature for Team USA ever again. But there shouldn’t be any doubts over his fit, since his playoff performances reverberated exactly what Steve Kerr is after with the star-powered team.

Why Jaylen Brown would have been a great fit for Team USA

International basketball differs vastly from NBA rules. Jaylen Brown’s brawling nature and his ability to absorb contact would have been invaluable for Kerr. Moreover, he can easily switch to playing off the ball when necessary, which would have favored the dynamics within Team USA.

However, the vital skill that even Kerr highlighted was defense. “We’re going to score, we have all these guys who can score. It has to be about defence,” he said before facing South Sudan.  

If there was anything Jaylen Brown proved during the playoffs was his ability to play suffocating defense throughout the game. Let’s take the NBA Finals as the corpus. In five games of guarding Luka Doncic, the Slovenian only scored 21 points on 40% shooting. Brown forced 9 turnovers from Doncic, curbing the Mavericks’ offensive beacon from getting teammates involved.

This trait, coupled with his flexibility as a scorer, would place Jaylen Brown as a brilliant option to have in Kerr’s rotation. Unfortunately, the Finals MVP will not be traveling, but many still wish he could.