Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
Jaylen Brown addresses Olympics snub, Nike feud in new song ‘Just Do It’
Jaylen Brown released the music video for his new song with rapper Ferg, "Just Do It," on Friday, addressing his haters and his Nike feud.
Jaylen Brown says he’s “having a great summer.” But if “Just Do It,” Brown’s new song with Ferg, is any indication, the Celtics star and 2024 NBA Finals MVP clearly has some scores to settle — particularly with Nike.
Brown released the music video for “Just Do It” Friday morning, which begins in a hotel room as Brown, seemingly reeling from a breakup, eats ice cream and watches television.
As he flips through the channels, faceless commentators discuss how “fans across the globe are reacting to the unexpected absence of Jaylen Brown at the Olympics” and opine that Brown has been “blacklisted due to his ongoing conflict with Nike.”
Advertisement:
The song features plenty of lighthearted moments, including Ferg giving shoutouts to “Beantown” and Encore Boston Harbor. But the majority of “Just Do It” is about Brown working through “problems too deep for any therapist,” as he puts it.
So what exactly are Brown’s gripes with Nike, Team USA, and the media? And who is the girlfriend — or ex-girlfriend — he keeps singing about?
Jaylen Brown vs. the media
Brown spends much of the song singing about relationship troubles, but the chorus of “Just Do It” seems to focus on what he considers unfair treatment from Nike, Team USA, and the media.
During the Celtics championship parade, Brown wore a black T-shirt that read “State Your Source,” the same message he had for ESPN talking head Stephen A. Smith back in May.
Advertisement:
During a segment on “First Take,” Smith said that an unnamed NBA source told him Brown’s attitude had affected his marketability and his perception among NBA scribes.
“Jaylen Brown, it’s not so much that he’s underrated,” Smith said in May. “It’s that he’s just not liked because of his ‘I am better than you’ attitude. He knows it. It’s the same reason he is not as marketable as he should be.”
Brown addressed his perceived haters and their anonymity in the chorus of “Just Do It.”
“‘Cause I’m the only one they wanna f*** with now, but they be hating on the low,” Brown raps. “But I done took the game and flipped it upside down, balling ain’t the only thing I know.”
Jaylen Brown vs. Nike
If the name of Brown’s new song wasn’t evidence enough, the lyrics of “Just Do It” make clear that Brown remains unhappy with Nike. When discussing the end of his relationship, Brown repeatedly says the woman will “get replaced like a pair of shoes.”
Unlike most of his NBA peers, especially those in the upper echelons of the league, Brown does not have a sneaker deal. Though Brown has primarily worn Nike sneakers since his deal with Adidas ended in 2021, the player has been critical of Nike going back to 2022, when the apparel company ended its relationship with Kyrie Irving.
Advertisement:
After Nike founder Phil Knight said Irving “stepped over the line” when sharing an anti-semitic film clip on social media, Brown tweeted “since when did Nike care about ethics?”
After Brown was omitted from the U.S. men’s basketball squad for the 2024 Olympics, the Celtics forward tweeted “@Nike this is what we doing?”. When asked by a reporter if he thought that Nike had played a role in Brown being omitted from Team USA, Brown said, “I do, for sure.”
Brown also tweeted that he wasn’t “afraid of you or your resources” without mentioning Nike by name.
Jaylen Brown vs. Team USA
Brown’s contention that Nike played a role in his omission from Team USA has plenty of people convinced.
Nike is one of the prime sponsors of USA Basketball, and the Nike swoosh adorns Team USA’s jerseys.
“Does Team USA want Brown, who has made controversial and political statements in the past, on the world stage to express his opinions?,” wrote The Boston Globe‘s Gary Washburn. “Do politics have anything to do with [Grant] Hill’s decision? Of course they do.”
USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill, himself a member of the 1996 Dream Team, dismissed Brown’s concerns and quashed talk of any conspiracy theories during a July 26 appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show.”
Advertisement:
“This idea that there’s a conspiracy theory, I always love a good conspiracy theory, but it was really truly a basketball decision,” Hill said of Brown not making the cut. “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.
After Hill gave his interview, Brown hit back on social media, alluding to his role as a Vice President for the NBA Players Association giving him “a great understanding” of how the league’s politics play out.
“Grant Hill calling me a conspiracy theorist is disappointing,” Brown tweeted. “I’ve been a VP since I was 21 years old I have a great understanding.”
Jaylen Brown’s girlfriend
Though Brown’s issues with the media, Team USA, and Nike are likely of more interest to the average Celtics fan, the lion’s share of “Just Do It” seems to be about Brown’s failed relationship with an unnamed woman.
Brown is critical of both his ex and himself in “Just Do It,” saying, “If she go to sleep, she make me wrap her in an arm. ‘Fore she wake up, Forrest Gump, I’ll be gone.”
It’s probably safe to say that these lyrics are about someone other than Jaylen Brown’s current girlfriend, WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick.
Brown introduced the 2021 WNBA draft pick as his “beautiful date” on the red carpet at the ESPYs in July. And earlier this week, Gondrezick shared photos on her Instagram of her and Brown together and eating a piece of cake with Brown’s face on it.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com