Boston Celtics
Team USA needed defense at the point guard position, Hill said.
Grant Hill speaks at Fanatics Fest NYC 2026 Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Fanatics)
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Team USA took home the gold medal in basketball during the 2024 Olympics, but the way the roster was constructed raised eyebrows in Boston and beyond.
Celtics teammates Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, and Derrick White were all on the roster. Fellow Celtic Jaylen Brown, who had won Finals MVP and Eastern Conference Finals MVP during Boston’s 2024 championship run, had been left off the team.
Plus, Team USA was already dealing with injuries to a pair of star players. Kawhi Leonard had a knee injury that ultimately forced him to withdraw from the competition. Kevin Durant was dealing with a calf strain, which caused the team to take a “very patient approach.”
Brown perceived the decision to leave him off the team as a snub and reported to Celtics training camp saying he was extremely motivated for “obvious reasons.” USA basketball manager director Grant Hill said the injuries to Leonard and Durant caused the team to rethink the roster and go in a different direction.
“Contrary to popular belief, I do like Jaylen Brown,” Hill said during a recent episode of The Road Trippin’ Show. “I love his game and things got difficult there with that team. So, in putting the team together, just to put some context, we had Kawhi Leonard penciled in on that team and he got hurt at the end of that season in 2024. He came to camp, he wasn’t right, and so we had to pivot.”
Holiday had already helped USA win gold in 2020, but considering his age (34 at the time) and the skill-sets of the other players at his position, there were concerns about what might happen if he were to get hurt.
So, Hill brought in another guard from the Celtics who had plenty of familiarity with such a role playing both alongside and without Holiday at times. The choice was White.
“Jrue Holiday was so important for us in that FIBA game. A point guard who can play his role, ball pressure, the whole nine,” Hill said. “So, if Jrue got hurt, our point guard were [Tyrese] Haliburton and [Stephen] Curry, and defense wasn’t necessarily their strong point.”
“So, it was like ‘let’s bring in insurance for Jrue Holiday’ and it was like Derrick White. So, that was the thought process.”
Hill said his failure to recognize the sensitivities around picking three Celtics teammates over Brown would cause was a mistake. He said he called several players who had been in consideration, but did not end up making the team, including Brown.
“The mistake I made was that I started trying to interpret cryptic tweets, which I’m not very good at,” Hill said. “When I announced the team, there were certain guys that I called before Woj and Shams broke it. I called [Damian Lillard], I called Jimmy Butler, I tried to call everybody because you never know when they’re going to break it and you want to give guys the respect to hear it from me.”
Brown said he believed “shoe politics” were part of the reason he did not make the team. He tagged the official X account in a post saying “this what we doing?” after the news broke that he wasn’t on the team. He later told Sports Illustrated that he “for sure” believes his issues with Nike cost him a spot on the Olympic team.
“One, I think sneaker industries, and I’ve said this before, have way too much control over the basketball foundation,” Brown said at the time. “In youth sports, it’s the same. Kids are having to worry about even playing with Nike, playing well on the Adidas circuit. And they should just be working on developing their basketball skills.
“Instead, we’re focusing more on shoe politics, and I think that is why the rest of the world has caught up. And if we don’t do something about it, the next Olympics and the next global outings are going to look a lot different.”
Hill said his conversation with Brown went well, but he also mentioned that he didn’t appreciate accusations of Nike’s involvement in Team USA’s roster decisions.
“I called Jaylen, we had a great conversation. Unbelievable conversation,” Hill said. “And so, something got lost there and the implication that a shoe company – look you guys can criticize my leadership, you can criticize my ability to put together a roster. “
“When you’re in a role that I’m in, you open yourself up to criticism, I can accept that. But, to imply that a shoe company told me what to do, now you’re questioning my character and that was wrong.”
Khari A. Thompson
Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.
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