Celtics' Jaylen Brown catches wild Nike stray in Giannis 59-point post
On Wednesday night, the Milwaukee Bucks escaped another would-be defeat thanks in large part to Giannis Antetokounmpo 's continued stellar play on the season. Antetokounmpo put up 59 points on stellar shooting to lead the Bucks to a 127-120 victory over the Detroit Pistons in overtime, and in the aftermath of that performance, the Nike social media team decided to throw a wild stray towards Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown in reference to his comments towards Antetokounmpo earlier this week.
The Celtics star already has existing beef with Nike, and this clapback only serves to fan the flames of the two parties' contentious relationship.
"Nothing childish about 'em. 59 for the Greek freak," wrote the official Nike Basketball account on X (formerly known as Twitter).
As one would recall, Brown called Antetokounmpo a "child" following the Celtics' 113-107 win over the Bucks this past Sunday. Antetokounmpo famously faked out a handshake with Brown after the Bucks star's elbow met the Celtics forward's head on what was whistled an offensive foul.
Brown took exception to this gesture, saying that he has no time for Antetokounmpo's antics and that he was only locked in on the goal of leading the Celtics to victory. But it was clearly a lighthearted moment from the Bucks star, and he took the high road when he was informed of Brown's reaction to his trolling gesture.
At the end of the day, the Bucks star has plenty of support on his side (and so does Brown), and his season-best effort definitely warrants celebration for a Milwaukee team that has struggled to begin the year — even though that support from Nike came at the expense of the Celtics star.
Explaining Celtics star Jaylen Brown's beef with Nike
In late 2022, the seeds between Jaylen Brown and Nike's full-blown beef were planted when Brown took Kyrie Irving's side following the footwear company's decision to cut ties with the polarizing point guard. Brown called into question Nike's ethics — perhaps alluding to the company's issues with outsourcing labor via sweatshops in East Asia.
The beef was already simmering between Nike and the Celtics star, and then it devolved into a full-blown public fight when Brown tweeted out his displeasure over not being chosen for Team USA's Olympic roster . Brown blamed his exclusion on Nike's purported stranglehold on Team USA roster decisions, although he is not relenting an inch on his anti-Nike stance, saying that he would much rather not suit up for the national team in the future than to sign with the billion-dollar footwear brand.
Brown took this to the next level by starting his own shoe line called 741. The Celtics star put his money where his mouth is and invested $50 million into growing his own brand, which is not an easy undertaking in a world dominated by major brands such as Nike and Adidas.
Nike, however, clearly isn't taking these shots from Brown sitting down. They decided that it was time to fire back, and Giannis Antetokounmpo's 59-point outing provided the perfect opportunity for the perfect clapback.
