{"id":87125,"date":"2024-07-24T01:03:12","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T05:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=87125"},"modified":"2024-07-24T01:03:40","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T05:03:40","slug":"paris-olympics-carmelo-anthony-speaks-out-team-usa-jaylen-brown-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/24\/paris-olympics-carmelo-anthony-speaks-out-team-usa-jaylen-brown-snub\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics: Future HOFer Speaks Out About Team USA Snub"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Never one to shy away from speaking out, 10-time NBA All-Star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/anthoca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carmelo Anthony<\/a> has shared his thoughts on Boston Celtics swingman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brownja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaylen Brown<\/a> being left <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/10\/paris-olympics-what-to-expect-from-each-celtic\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">off of Team USA\u2019s roster<\/a> for the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n<h2>Carmelo Anthony Speaks Out About Jaylen Brown-Team USA Snub<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI think (Brown) should\u2019ve got a shot,\u201d Anthony tells <em>Podcast P with Paul George<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor whatever reason it is (that he was left off the team), you can\u2019t make it that obvious. This man busts his a**, he works hard, he takes everything that people say about him \u2014he\u2019s not marketable, he\u2019s not this, he\u2019s not that \u2014and he go win a championship and do it the way he did it.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jaylen Brown not getting a shot at making Team USA\u2019s Olympic roster rubbed Melo the wrong way.<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ATT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ATT<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/taqieLljua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/taqieLljua<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PodcastPShow\/status\/1815517448785076442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 22, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cHow he don\u2019t (sic) get a shot at the USA team? What you gonna tell me he don\u2019t fit \u00a0the style of play. At least give the respect like, \u2018Yo you a champion.\u2019 You won, you work, you played on this team before. You\u2019re a part of Team USA. So it\u2019s like if it\u2019s something that\u2019s personal\u2026 give him the opportunity\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As Anthony says, calling for Brown to get a shot isn\u2019t a shot at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/whitede01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derrick White<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, similar to the U.S. women\u2019s national basketball team leaving off Indiana Fever guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/c\/clarkca02w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caitlin Clark<\/a>, it doesn\u2019t make the most sense. Clark\u2019s case brings comments from USA women\u2019s basketball director Briana Weiss into question, as Weiss said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fieldhousefiles.com\/p\/team-usa-explains-wbb-criteria-caitlin-clark-out\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">her exclusion was solely basketball-related<\/a>\u00a0(h\/t Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files). If that was the case, Clark \u2014the WNBA\u2019s assist leader as a rookie\u2014should\u2019ve at least gotten a tryout.<\/p>\n<p>Brown\u2019s snub is even more of a head-scratcher.<\/p>\n<p>As Anthony alluded to, he played spectacularly in the 2024 NBA Playoffs, winning the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/28\/celtics-jaylen-brown-honored-eastern-conference-finals-mvp\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Eastern Conference Finals<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/18\/celtics-pillar-jaylen-brown-bestowed-fmvp-honor-nba-finals-victory\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">NBA Finals MVP<\/a> awards. Brown performed so well that Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said he considers him <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/08\/jason-kidd-drops-mic-celtics-best-player-jaylen-brown\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">their best player<\/a>. To be passed over for not one of his teammates but three is ludicrous.<\/p>\n<h3>Derrick White <em>Does<\/em> Fit<\/h3>\n<p>Of course, White became a media sensation during the Celtics run to the NBA Finals as well.<\/p>\n<p>With more eyes on him than ever, he showed himself to be among the best backcourt defenders in the NBA. His penchant for blocking shots and making clutch baskets even led to calls for him to be an All-Star. This is significant in part because White was averaging 15.6 points per game ahead of the All-Star Break. If he made the team, he\u2019d have lowest pre-All-Star scoring average for an NBA All-Star since Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (7.9 points per game) in 2021-22.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, many believe White\u2019s focus on being part of a team\u2019s connective tissue led to him being picked. With so many elite scorers on the roster, his heady playmaking allows him to fit smoothly into Team USA\u2019s constellation.<\/p>\n<h3>Jaylen Brown Fits More<\/h3>\n<p>Yet, Team USA needed to replace <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leonaka01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, whose skillset is more similar to Brown\u2019s than White.<\/p>\n<p>If they added Brown, perhaps the offense wouldn\u2019t go through extensive lulls. To that point, the Georgia native has averaged 23.7 points per game over the past five seasons. Furthermore, with his length and defense, Team USA wouldn\u2019t allow perimeter penetration so frequently.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s because Brown isn\u2019t a Nike athlete, or he was critical of the company after they dropped Kyrie Irving, or his religious beliefs, or people just <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/24\/celtics-jaylen-brown-strongly-worded-response-underrated\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">believe he\u2019s on a high horse<\/a>, the purpose of Team USA assembling perhaps its most talented roster ever was to win a gold medal. If that\u2019s the case, backroom politics shouldn\u2019t have interfered. After three largely unimpressive pre-Olympic exhibition games, that\u2019s more clear than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Never one to shy away from speaking out, 10-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony has shared his thoughts on Boston Celtics swingman Jaylen Brown being left off of Team USA\u2019s roster for the Paris Olympics. Carmelo Anthony Speaks Out About Jaylen Brown-Team USA Snub \u201cI think (Brown) should\u2019ve got a shot,\u201d Anthony tells Podcast P with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":87131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,1608,5,62,3],"tags":[49063,67,1090,450,1052],"class_list":["post-87125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-olympics","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-nba","category-news","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-derrick-white","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-olympics"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}