USA Basketball’s selection process for the 2024 Paris Olympics hasn’t pleased many. The community, in the last few weeks, has witnessed memorable moments, snubs, and big-time controversies, we tell you. Along with bringing back LeBron James after he last played in 2012, Steph Curry and Anthony Edwards also made it to the roster. The issue arose when Derrick White was sent as Kawhi’s replacement instead of Jaylen Brown. 2016 gold medallist Kyrie Irving was also excluded, with 8 years younger Tyrese Haliburton. Despite the uproar and Draymond criticizing his own GSW coach, another ex-Warrior believes that what happened was for the best.

DeMarcus Cousins and Quinn Cook discussed Tyrese Haliburton’s inclusion in the Team USA roster. Quinn initiated the topic, stating, “You need a guy who’s not gonna be mad when not playing.” This was an indirect dig at Jaylen Brown, as the Team USA roster was reportedly concerned whether “someone of Jaylen Brown’s caliber would accept having a significantly reduced role.” Therefore, with the team filled with dominating scorers like LeBron, KD, etc, the need was for a player who wouldn’t mind staying on the sidelines.

“Obviously, Jaylen Brown, Kyrie Irving, from a talent perspective, and what they’ve done, even with their resumes, they’re supposed to be on the team. But when you’re putting a team together, just sometimes you need your Derrick White,” Quinn Cook said on Above The Rim with DH 12. “The topic of the basketball world has been ‘Jayson Tatum not playing’, yeah. If Derrick White don’t play, that’s expected.”

Being the second-in-command in their respective franchises, both Jaylen Brown and Kyrie Irving are expected to carry the offensive effort, which grants them more on-court minutes. During the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks, Brown averaged 38.5 minutes throughout five games, while Irving averaged 39 minutes. While Derrick White himself wasn’t that far behind with his average of 36.7 minutes, his scoring wasn’t on par with that of his Celtics teammate and Mavericks rival.

During the 2016 Rio Olympics, Kyrie Irving went on to average 22.2 minutes over 8 games, with 17 minutes being used up to add only 4 points in the Finals against Serbia. In contrast, LeBron James has averaged 20.5 minutes at the Paris Olympics, while Kevin Durant just 19.6. Therefore, Irving’s previous record of taking up a bulk of the minutes, which may or may not generate the required points, may have played a role in his exclusion.

After Jaylen Brown hinted that his exclusion from Team USA was because of his sour relationship with Nike, the team’s managing director Grant Hill was quick to come out with a response. He went on to state that “the responsibility that I have is to put together a team and a team that complements each other.” He had to decide on these grounds, even if it meant not taking in “Finals MVP.”

As highlighted by Quinn Cook, the management simply may not have believed that taking in Jaylen Brown and/or Kyrie Irving would have been worthwhile if they had just remained on the sidelines. Another ex-NBA player, however, had a stronger reasoning, siding with the Celt’s Nike agenda and providing more reasons for the same. Now that we’ve opened this can of worms, let’s dive deeper.

Rashad McCants believes that Jaylen Brown supporting Kyrie Irving played a role in Nike allegedly influencing the exclusion decision

After Jaylen Brown made headlines for blaming Nike, reactions started to pour in from all sides. Many former NBA players, including Gilbert Arenas and Rashad McCants, agreed with the Celtics star’s sentiment. During a segment of his ‘Gil’s Arena’ podcast, the Wizards legend even went on to state that Team USA was allegedly a Nike Event that just sidelined players who aren’t a part of the billion-dollar brand.

McCants highlighted that both players were, at one point in time, associated with the brand until complications arose. “Jaylen Brown sided with Kyrie Irving. He spoke out against Nike dropping Kyrie,” said McCants. “Nike dropped Kyrie after the post, Jaylen Brown didn’t like that, I think he was the President of the Players’ Association at the time, he was obligated to speak out about what Nike did, why they did it, he didn’t like it. He was wearing Kobes at the time, so he started covering up his Kobes.”

Back in 2022, Kyrie Irving suffered from repercussions after he posted antisemitic content online. This involved the Nets suspending him, and Nike ending the endorsement deal that they signed with the player in 2014. By that point, it had been 3 years since Irving had left the Celtics, and much of the Boston fanbase had turned against the player.

Despite this, Brown, in his capacity as VP of the NBA Players Association, stated his disagreement with the terms that Irving needed to fulfill for his franchise suspension to be revoked. When it came to Nike, Brown took to his official X account, and wrote, “Since when did Nike care about ethics?” This, according to reports, is what soured the relationship between Nike and the 2024 NBA champion.

After Grant Hill went on to state that Brown blaming Nike was just a ‘conspiracy theory’, the Celt had to remind him that as VP of the NBA Players Association, he has “a great understanding” of how things work.

Brown and Irving may have been excluded from the 2024 roster simply because of the playing minutes issue. However, no one can deny the ‘fishy-ness’ that this happened with the duo, who were not on good terms with Nike.

Before you go, remember to check out this crossover between BG12 and Georgia Bulldogs star Silas Demary Jr.