Jaylen Brown happy for Derrick White, says he isn't surprised by Team USA snub

BOSTON -- Jaylen Brown cleared the air about his Team USA snub on Monday night, and made it crystal clear that he is happy that his Celtics teammate Derrick White got the nod. But Brown is still pretty sour towards Nike, whom he believes is responsible for him being left off the Olympic roster.

Brown was at Monday night's Celtics-Lakers Summer League game in Las Vegas, seated courtside with Kysre Gondrezick and Angel Reese. He spoke with reporters at the Thomas & Mack Center, and said that before he fired off some social media posts about his snub, he reached out to his teammate to congratulate him on his honor.

"I called Derrick right away," Brown told reporters, via Jared Weiss of The Athletic. "Just to make sure there's no confusion, my love for you and all of that. He knew that, and he did. You don't always gotta make everything public. Me and D-White are good." 

While White is a great glue player that will fit in well on the USA basketball roster, Brown certainly deserved a spot after coming off a playoff run where he led the Celtics to an NBA championship and took home MVP honors in both the NBA Finals and Eastern Conference Championship. He took aim at Nike -- one of the main sponsors of Team USA -- in the aftermath of the snub, and on Monday, said that he believes the company was involved with him being left off the team.

"I do for sure," said Brown. "There will be more stuff to come with that. As of now, I'm not gonna comment on it."

The controversy started last week when Kawhi Leonard bowed out of the Paris Summer Olympics with a knee injury, forcing Team USA to add to its roster. White was named Leonard's replacement, leaving many to wonder why Brown wasn't given the nod.

Brown, however, wasn't too surprised. But that didn't take away from his excitement of having three Celtics -- White, Jayson Tatum, and Jrue Holiday -- representing the country.

"I wasn't surprised," he said. "My reaction was I was happy for D-White. Stoked to have so much of our guys on there. So I was happy for those guys. But I wasn't surprised."

It sounds like Brown is ready to move on (at least for now), as he told reporters that his focus is now on repeating as NBA champs.

"For me, it's back to ground one," he said. "My mindset is (the) championship is over now. Now, we gotta get back to work."

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