NBA star Jaylen Brown isn’t taking an apology from the Beverly Hills (Ca.) Police Department as a measure of resolution after officers shut down a private event he was hosting on Feb. 14 during All-Star Weekend.
Brown, the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, is considering legal action against the city after police shut down his event around 7 p.m. with zero discussions with him or the owner of the venue where his event was being held. In a previous statement, Brown said that shutting the event down based on the belief of officers who didn’t enter the residence “raises serious due-process concerns” and led to “significant financial and reputational harm.”
“I’m not a legality type of pursuing guy, but you embarrassed my brand and my team. And I think that is unfair,” Brown told ESPN’s Andscape. “And for you to continue to tell untruths in your apology statement, I feel offended by it. I will circle back with my team this weekend, and we will make a decision.”
“It’s hard to say that you were not being targeted,” he added.
Brown says he spent $300,000 on the canceled event, while his sponsors spent $300,000 to $500,000.
The city apologized to Brown, correcting a previous statement about what drew officers to the residence and prompted them to end the event early. Citing those inaccuracies, Brown thanked the city for the apology but deemed it insufficient, writing on social media that “damage is already done.”
According to the Boston Globe, an event permit for the event featuring Brown was rejected due to previous violations at the Beverly Hills home, which belongs to Oakley sunglasses founder Jim Jannard. Brown categorically denied the claims, stating that the event, which was to promote his Oakley’s performance brand, was private and invitation-only and was not accessible to the public.
“Upon further internal review, the City has determined that its prior public communication contained inaccurate information,” Beverly Hills officials wrote in a statement shared to Instagram on Thursday (Feb. 19). “Specifically, no permit application was submitted nor denied for the event and the residence does not have any prior related violations on record. The City takes full accountability for the internal error that resulted in the inaccurate statement being distributed and is working to ensure it does not happen again.”
“I wanted to enjoy myself, and I felt that got taken away,” Brown told reporters gathered in San Francisco after the Celtics 121-110 win over the Golden State Warriors. “I was embarrassed. If it happened to me, I’m sure it happened to a bunch of people in the past. I look at it like that. There are probably a bunch of people that don’t scream, falls on deaf fears, which is unfortunate. I’m not sure what the conclusion is. … Even the statement that they put out, they included some stuff that wasn’t true, even in the apology.”
“So I don’t think the apology is acceptable. I lost a lot of money [with our] partners, et cetera. People were making assumptions that we didn’t go through the proper protocols. So, all around it’s just a bad taste in my mouth. I’m extremely offended. My team is offended. I’m not sure what the conclusion is going to be. All I know is it’s some bulls–t.”
