Celtics Star Clear Up U.S. Olympic Drama

After the Boston Celtics won the 2024 NBA title, vibes had never been better in the C's locker room. For years, Celtics fans have endured a persistent narrative that Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum could not coexist - that the duo could never win a championship together, that Brown needed to be traded for the franchise to raise Banner 18, and that the pair didn't get along behind the scenes.

Once Boston won the title, there was a belief that this narrative had been put to bed and that team morale had never been higher. Well, USA Basketball had other plans, inciting drama this offseason that transcended continents.

On July 10, USA Basketball announced that Kawhi Leonard had opted out of competing with the team in Paris. To replace Leonard, Celtics guard Derrick White was added to the Olympic roster. Jaylen Brown would have been a reasonable pick to fill Leonard's roster spot, but the powers of USA Basketball (and Nike?) decided to go with a different Celtic, guard Derrick White.

The decision to select White over Brown was met with immediate scrutiny and theories that the decision was fueled by politics rather than X's and O's. One prominent theory was that Nike, who maintains a powerful partnership with USA Basketball, had been behind Brown's exclusion. Brown has butted heads with Nike in the past, and he further fueled this theory by tweeting at Nike and dropping the cryptic tweet below:

Jayson Tatum, already a lock on the USA roster, didn't exactly smooth things over either when he revealed that he hadn't spoken to Brown in the immediate fallout and passed up on an opportunity to go to bat for Brown with a diplomatic response to a question regarding Brown's absence: "I mean, there's so many guys that could, you know, take that last spot or whatever."

The entire saga reignited the narrative that Tatum and Brown didn't completely get along, and that Brown's omission from the team created in-fighting amongst Brown, Tatum, and White.

Well, White recently provided some additional clarity, speaking to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. White revealed that he and Brown had spoken over the phone and were "good".

"Jaylen gave me a call and I was like 'Yeah, you didn't need to call me. I know we're good.' He gave me a call and I told him we're all good. Never any problem or issue with us, for sure. He's a hell of a player and I've never had a bad thing to say about JB."

- Derrick White

White's comments could help quell the concerns of Celtics fans that the Olympic roster selection has done irreversible damage to team chemistry. In total, Boston sent three players to Paris: White, Tatum, and Jrue Holiday. The Celtics representation on the United States roster is unmatched by any other NBA team.

Team USA embarks on their gold medal pursuit on Sunday when they face off against Nikola Jokic and Serbia at 11:15 A.M. ET.

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