Jaylen Brown Responds After Grant Hill Calls Him ‘A Conspiracy Theorist’

The budding feud between Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown and Team USA Managing Director Grant Hill reached fever-pitch last week as Hill called Brown a “conspiracy theorist” on the Dan Patrick Show.

After Kawhi Leonard dropped from the USA basketball team due to injury, Hill chose Brown’s teammate Derrick White to fill his place instead of the reigning NBA Finals MVP, a surprise decision. Brown believes he did not make the cut because of his war of words with Nike, the American basketball clothing sponsor. After learning White filled the final spot, he tweeted, “@nike this what we doing,” and a day later posted again on X saying, “I’m not afraid of you or your resources.”

Hill tried to clear the air on Friday regarding his roster decision.

“I mean, I think this idea that there’s a conspiracy theory – I always love a good conspiracy theory, but it was really, truly a basketball decision. These are tough decisions, but having gone through this with the FIBA competition, you want to find the right balance and the right pieces on the court that we needed.”

Once more, Brown took to Twitter to voice his opinion, writing, “Grant Hill calling me a conspiracy theorist is disappointing. I’ve been a VP since I was 21 years old, and I have a great understanding.”

Brown’s three teammates are in Paris to compete for Team USA. Jrue Holiday started the team’s first game against Serbia and played the second-most minutes, with 24. White, the player who replaced Brown, made one basket in 16 minutes. Jayson Tatum, who plays the position as Brown, did not receive a minute of game action due to the backlog of wings on the roster.

USA basketball Head Coach Steve Kerr said he “feels like an idiot” after the game for not finding space for the three-time All-NBA SF, but it proved how hard it is to find the floor on this team.