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Jaylen Brown Nike tweet, explained: Why Celtics star has beef with shoe brand after USA Olympics snub

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Jaylen Brown Boston Celtics
(NBA Entertainment)

USA Basketball announced Wednesday that Celtics guard Derrick White will replace an injured Kawhi Leonard on the Senior Men's National Team for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The decision came as somewhat of a surprise, even though there was previous reporting during the NBA Finals that White was a candidate to fill in if there were any injuries.

The replacement caused a stir on social media after Celtics star Jaylen Brown sent a cryptic tweet shortly after the announcement. 

Brown expressed interest in playing for Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics before the start of the 2023-24 season. "Playing for USA Basketball, I think there is no greater honor. ... Being able to participate would be very cool," the NBA champion said.

Coming off of an impressive postseason run that led to Eastern Conference Finals and Finals MVP honors, Brown likely feels he was snubbed from an opportunity to earn a gold medal.

Hours after his initial tweet, Brown went back to X to target Nike — the leading sponsor for the United States at the Olympics — for the decision to leave him off the team.

Brown followed up his tweet the next day with another post after Grant Hill commented on the situation.

What is Brown's issue with the Swoosh? The Sporting News breaks it down below.

MORE: Replacing Kawhi Leonard with Derrick White is a mistake for Team USA

Jaylen Brown Nike tweet, explained

When Brown was drafted by the Celtics in 2016, he signed a sneaker deal with adidas. He wore adidas kicks for the first five seasons of his career but his contract expired in 2021.

Brown has not signed a shoe deal since then, playing as a sneaker free agent for the past three seasons.

In that span, Brown has mostly worn Nike's Kobe Bryant signature line with a few other brands like New Balance mixed in.

But the Celtics star spoke out against Nike during the controversy when Kyrie Irving was dropped from the brand for posting things many viewed as antisemitic on social media back in 2022.

That was, perhaps, Brown's first strike against the Swoosh.

Since then, Brown continued to wear Kobes more often than not, but he made a notable cosmetic change to his sneakers this past year.

During Boston's entire championship season, Brown wore a variety of Kobe models with the Nike Swoosh completely removed from his shoe. You can find an example of the pair he wore on Christmas Day below.

Would Brown's backlash toward Nike in 2022 and the decision to rock Swoosh-less sneakers this past season be enough for Team USA's primary apparel brand to avoid selecting him for the 2024 Paris Olympics? It's definitely possible.

And, if we're making assumptions based on Brown's tweet — he certainly believes so.

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Kyle Irving is an NBA content producer for The Sporting News.