Jaylen Brown was criticized by an unnamed person many months ago for being ‘arrogant’ and for thinking he was better than everybody else. The conduit through which this ‘attack’ on Brown was perpetrated was Stephen A. Smith. The ‘source’ pointed fingers on certain traits of Brown while talking on First Take. Brown, rightfully, has his personal take on himself and sat down with Smith to send a message across to this unnamed source.
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“I wanted to let them know that I had a great summer. Like, just as simple as that. I travelled the world. I went to Umrah. I won two MVPs. I, you know, launched Black Wall Street in Oakland and made a music video. I had a blast.”
The reigning Finals MVP, in turn, questioned the standing of this unnamed source whose identity fans will never get to know due to Stephen A’s ‘journalistic integrity’. It’s refreshing to see an athlete take a narrative about himself and address it head on, quashing it objectively.
He would go on to say, “I basically wanted to say to them that I think it’s cowardice. I think historically, unnamed sources have attacked some of our greats.”
Brown’s supposed arrogance has been an ‘ideal’ that has haunted him ever since he was drafted as the 3rd pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. Due to his academic credentials and overall intelligence outside of the realm of basketball, team front offices believed he would be a handful to deal with as he wouldn’t follow instructions and give pushback.
Fast-forward nearly a decade and Jaylen Brown is a household name as an NBA superstar, putting to rest any debate about his character and his marketability. In fact, Brown doesn’t seem to care at all about how marketable he is, hence his decision to go against the grain and not align himself with big name brands like Nike or Adidas.
Brown doesn’t want to be associated with Nike
Another controversy that Brown found himself muddled in was at the time of the Team USA selections for the Paris Olympics in the men’s basketball division. As the 2024 FMVP, he wasn’t selected yet his 3 Celtics teammates, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday were.
The Celtics star put out a tweet calling out Nike, Team USA’s biggest sponsor, and heavily implying that only Nike athletes are being favored for Team USA. While he have felt a bit scorned by his exclusion from the roster, athletes like Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, and Anthony Edwards are all signed with brands other than Nike. So, his argument may not be as strong here.
He did take to this interview with Stephen A. Smith to address this issue however. “I’ll say it again, because I know it’ll be a quote in 2028. If I have to sign to Nike to increase my likelihood of playing USA basketball, I’ll pass.”
He is so far away from signing with another brand that over this past summer, he’s created his own. He launched his ‘741’ performance brand and will be sporting his own shoes throughout the 2024-25 season.
Quite the brave move from JB as going into this season he’ll have the world’s eyes on him. According to Stephen A. Smith, Brown even sacrificed $50 million+ in endorsements to launch this brand so it’s safe to say a lot does ride on the success of ‘741’.
