Derrick White Officially Buried The Idea That There Were Issues With Jaylen Brown Over His Team USA Selection

Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox. Getty Images.

It's safe to say that heading into the Olympics, one of the biggest storylines for Team USA was Jaylen Brown being snubbed for the Men's Basketball roster in favor of teammate and fellow NBA Champion Derrick White. To this day we still don't know the true story behind that decision, and I don't think anyone realistically belives it was for "basketball reasons" like the team tried to suggest. Yes, Derrick White is awesome. Yes, he's the ultimate glue guy who fits into any roster and any role and has a skillset that has already proved to be valuable to Team USA. 

But Jaylen Brown is one of the best basketball players on earth. Both things can be true.

As a result of this decision and how Jaylen handled it publicly, it wasn't a surprise what soon followed. All the usual suspects, you know those who will find any excuse to try and create drama and break this team apart, went heavy into the "Jaylen Brown is a bad teammate" routine. They took a vague tweet by Jaylen and turned it into taking shots at Derrick White, which in my opinion is quite sad. Maybe it's because it came during a slow time in the sports calendar or something, but talk about trying to make something out of nothing.

At Summer League, Jaylen cleared the air

Even still, there were some out there that didn't really believe this. That it was just Jaylen saving face and that there was still chemistry issues that could now jeopardize a chance to repeat their title.

Well, about that. 

One of their high-profile teammates is missing, of course. Celtics forward Jaylen Brown, an All-Star who was named Finals MVP last month, was not chosen for the Olympic team. Brown voiced his displeasure when White was named an injury replacement instead of him, later clarifying that he was happy for White, just frustrated by the selection process and his belief that his past criticisms of Nike, a team sponsor, played a role in his omission.

“Jaylen gave me a call and I was like, ‘Yeah, you didn’t need to call me. I know we’re good,’” White said. “He gave me a call and said he just wanted to clear things up 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 is the least problematic player in the entire league. Why anyone would suggest that he would ever be involved in any sort of chemistry/locker room drama is honestly one of the more insane things you could possibly do. This guy?

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If anything Derrick White needs to remember he's a whole lot closer to these players than he thinks. Make no mistake, the Celts do not win the title without the two-way play of Derrick White. His evolution as a player is as important as any other piece to this championship roster, and he's only getting better. 

Hopefully, we can now all put this "issue" to bed. There were no shots, no subtweeting, no drama. This team has made things abundantly clear since last October, which is the only thing they care about is winning championships and doing it together. That mindset just won them one, so why the hell would things change? I guess when a team has zero drama while having a historic season in which they capped it off with a title, there will always be some out there who will feel the need to manufacture issues and then treat them as fact. Remember, there was a time when ESPN claimed Jayson Tatum wasn't smiling for Jaylen Brown when he won ECF MVP while showing a video of him actively smiling and clapping.

In reality, this is a team that feels like a group that has matured out of that phase. All of the trivial bullshit that can sometimes break up or cause issues in a younger rocker room didn't really happen this season. Everyone was locked in from the jump. Those issues may have been a young Celtics problem, but now? 

You tell me