Nike Fires Back After Jaylen Brown’s Giannis Comment

Nike has chimed in on the recent feud between Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown.

Last night, the Nike Basketball account on X took a moment to congratulate its signature athlete on his 59-point performance against the Detroit Pistons yesterday, but in the tweet (shown below), the brand also took a not-so-subtle shot at Brown. “Nothing childish about ’em. 59 for the Greak freak,” the tweet reads.

The squabble between Antetokounmpo and Brown started during the game between the Bucks and Celtics on Sunday, Nov. 10. During the second quarter, Antetokounmpo inadvertently elbowed Brown on the head after a post-up move. Moments later, Antetokounmpo reached his hand out to Brown but quickly retracted it while having a grin on his face.

After the game, Brown was asked by reporters about the incident, where he called out Antetokounmpo for the handshake fakeout. “Giannis is a child, I’m just focused on getting my team a win, and that’s what we did tonight,” Brown said.

Brown has a long history of being openly critical of Nike, including back in 2022 when he questioned the brand’s ethics following its decision to cut ties with Kyrie Irving. Brown’s criticism continued this past summer when he appeared to blame the brand for being omitted from Team USA, with Nike being the team’s official sponsor.

Back in September, Brown launched his own brand, 741, which included the release of a performance basketball shoe in October.

UPDATE (11/14): Brown has now responded to Nike Basketball’s aforementioned tweet. The Celtics star replied to the original post on X by saying, “Yall got weird energy.”