Did Nike block Brown's shot?

Finals MVP thinks Team USA omission linked to company’s sponsorship

- DAVE FESCHUK

The possibility of Jaylen Brown voicing his opinion on social issues could have been a headache at the Olympics, where athletes are encouraged to keep their counterestablishment views to themselves., Dave Feschuk writes.

In a lot of ways, the U.S. men’s basketball team’s 11th-hour substitution made sense. When Kawhi Leonard bowed out of his roster spot for the Paris Olympics, there was hardly a shortage of options to replace him.

Though the U.S. has taken its share of hoop-related hits, failing to produce an American-born NBA MVP since 2018 and losing to Canada for the bronze medal at last summer’s FIBA World Cup, there’s no denying that the game’s ancestral cradle still brims with talent.

So as much as the news of Leonard’s sidelining was predictable — the Raptors legend and 2019 NBA Finals MVP has been perpetually unavailable for duty since he left Toronto for the L.A. Clippers five years ago — the identity of Leonard’s replacement was hardly a lock. A case could have been made for more than one player.

It raised eyebrows that Grant Hill, the ultimate decision-maker at USA Basketball, chose Derrick White. White is the third member of the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics to earn a spot on the 12-man roster. Not among those three Celtics is the man widely considered to be the second-best player on the team, Jaylen Brown.