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You might think that winning an NBA championship, being named NBA Finals MVP and signing one of the richest contracts in NBA history might be enough for Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown.
It wasn’t. When news broke that Brown was being left off Team USA in favor of teammate Derrick White when Kawhi Leonard was asked to leave the team ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Brown was openly critical of the move.
In turn, lifetime Celtics fan and podcast host Bill Simmons was critical of Brown for those comments, pointing out how unrest in team chemistry following a championship can lead to a team falling flat the next season.
While Brown said he later congratulated White for making the team, his initial public reaction was to complain that Nike’s affiliation with Team USA had led to him being left off the team. Brown has been critical of Nike’s business practices in the past.
Brown was not only the NBA Finals MVP for the Celtics in 2024 after defeating the Dallas Mavericks, he was also Eastern Conference Finals MVP. He signed a five-year, $285.39 million contract extension with the Celtics in July 2023.
“They’re trying to do all these different things with (Team USA) and White made more sense for it,” Simmons said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” on July 21. “So, if (Brown) is gonna express his displeasure, if he’s gonna blame Nike or whatever, you have to do it through the prism of ‘Derrick White’s an awesome player and he was a great choice. It’s upsetting to me that I wasn’t given a chance to compete for one of the forward spots.’
“Some way to frame it that doesn’t make it seem like you’re [expletive] on your teammate because he got picked over you. That’s not the kind of stuff that was happening before they won the title.”
Warriors Came Apart After Winning 2022 Title
Simmons used several examples from NBA history to prove his point about how discontent behind the scenes can derail a team’s championship repeat hopes. Most notably and most recently what happened with the Golden State Warriors after they won the 2022 NBA Finals — after they defeated the Celtics in six games.
At the beginning of the following season, video leaked of a Warriors practice in which forward Draymond Green punched guard Jordan Poole. That season, the Warriors lost in the Western Conference semifinals and after the season was over, both Green and head coach Steve Kerr admitted that the quest to repeat as a team was essentially over after the punch.
“There’s no hiding from it — the incident with Draymond and Jordan at the beginning of the year played a role in that,” Kerr said. “It’s hard for that not to impact a team.”
White Will Have Specialized Role on Team USA
One thing Brown didn’t seem to comprehend was that White will likely have a diminished role on Team USA — one that might see him register a DNP when it comes to Olympic play. With Brown, it would have upset chemistry on a team that’s already full of forwards, including his own teammate, Jayson Tatum.
“Even though Jaylen’s right, and he should be one of the 12 guys on this team if we were just picking a team of the 12 best guys … if we were just picking a team of the 12 best guys,” Simmons said. “He should be on the team if we’re doing that. But that’s not what the team was.”
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