Photo by Pierre Suu and Paras Griffin/Getty
Chris Brown has taken to Instagram to call out the NBA. The singer has accused the organization of allegedly uninviting him from participating in its All-Star Celebrity Game. The event occurred on Friday (February 16).
The singer, who has been a regular competitor at the annual event, took to his Story to share his frustrations.
In the lead-up to the basketball game, which included the likes of Kai Cenat and Lil Wayne, Brown claims that he received a call that there’d been a change of plans.
Apparently, Ruffles, one of the game’s sponsors, objected to the ‘Hope You’ singer’s involvement.
In the post shared on Friday night, he wrote:
“I was asked by the NBA to play in the All-Star Game this year! Only for them to call later and say I couldn’t do it because of their sponsors like Ruffles. At this point, I’m sick of bothering me and I’m tired of living in the f*****g past.”
The Grammy Award winner claimed that the NBA was still open to his attendance. And that’s despite having allegedly implemented plans to prevent his participation in the game.
In the words of Iyanla Vanzant, Brown basically said not on my watch.
“I posted the emails so y’all could see. The NBA still was tryna get me to come and sit court side… NOT F*****G HAPPENING,” he added.
In a bid to back up his claims of receiving an invite ahead of the All-Star game, Brown posted screenshots of the email received days before the event took place.
The email showed an official invitation. It further mentioned the sports gear Brown would wear, as well as details about the game and its start time.
“With him being on Lil Wayne’s team he will be in the blue uniform,” part of the email read.
Despite his claims of being shunned by NBA officials, Brown did not provide any evidence suggesting that the invite was revoked.
But he followed up with another post on his Instagram Story, clearly stating that he would only go “where I’m appreciated.”
It looked as if Tamika Mallory wanted to delve deeper into the conversation when she responded to his Story post.
The 43-year-old activist shared that brands ultimately decide who they do business with and who they don’t.
She seemed to highlight that when someone’s past includes alleged sexual assault and domestic violence, it begs the question of whether people are supposed to forgive and forget or continue to hold that person accountable.
“On this issue… brands have every right to choose who they do or don’t want to work with in situations surrounding domestic violence, sexual assault etc etc… I have questions for our community… especially our women,” she wrote.
Mallory asked a series of rhetorical questions before noting that she doesn’t keep up with news about Brown. She intended to hear how her followers felt about the situation and whether they believed Brown’s frustrations about being snubbed were valid.
Of course, it wasn’t long before fans took to social media, sounding off against the decision to remove Brown from the All-Star Celebrity Game.
“Chris brown became a star in 2005, The incident happened in 2009, this NBA thing is happening in 2025,” X user @IamKayceeBrown wrote in response to Brown’s Story. “They have tried to kill this black man for 15 years. This is why they’ll never let him do the Super Bowl presumably. Probably afraid he would’ve wiped all they a***s in the game.”
Another user named @_davyben insisted that the industry still blackballed Brown, as evidenced by his previous exclusion from performing at the 2022 AMAs.
The X user questioned why Brown was still being punished for his past.
“You just have to feel for the way the industry treats Chris Brown… Not too long ago, the AMAs did him dirty and now the NBA. In 2024, the blackballing is crazy. Why is the industry still actively trying to put him down so bad?? When will it end??”
The NBA has yet to respond to Brown’s post.
