EmailPrintINGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Beverly Hills police on Saturday night shut down a brand event hosted by Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, with the city saying the gathering lacked a permit. However, on Sunday, Brown disputed that characterization, calling a statement released by the city "completely false" while noting that hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment in the event were wasted."I'm offended by Beverly Hills by the statement they put out, like we applied for something and didn't get it, and we did it anyway [and] we were insubordinate," Brown said after the NBA All-Star Game at Intuit Dome, where he made his first appearance as an All-Star starter. "I know how to follow the rules. I'm smart enough to follow the guidelines. It just seemed like somebody didn't want whatever we had going on to go on because out of everybody that was doing something, it seemed like I was the only one that gets shut down."Earlier Sunday, the City of Beverly Hills released a statement to The Boston Globe, saying the city had rejected a permit for the event."On Saturday, February 14, the Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD) responded to an event taking place at a private residence in the Trousdale neighborhood of the City. An event permit had been applied for and denied by the City due to previous violations associated with events at the address," the statement read."Despite the fact that the permit was denied, organizers still chose to proceed with inviting hundreds of guests knowing that it was not allowed to occur. BHPD responded and shut down the unpermitted event."Brown posted a video of his conversation with a Beverly Hills police officer on his social media in which he sought answers and later said, "I feel like we're being targeted."After Sunday's game, Brown, who has a sponsorship with Oakley and who said the event was hosted at Oakley founder Jim Jannard's house, disputed the city's account."That was not true," Brown said. "We didn't need a permit because the owner of the house, that was his space. We were family friends. He opened up the festivities to us so we didn't have to. We never applied for one. ... I didn't have to pay for the house or anything. They just opened it up. I had to pay for the build-out, but it was hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted for an event that was supposed to be positive."Brown was asked whether he felt the shutdown was racially motivated."All I'm going to say is that everybody else that did something in activation, [there] seemed to be no issues," Brown said. "It was 7 p.m. It wasn't 10 p.m., it wasn't 11 p.m., it wasn't [midnight]. [It was] 7 p.m. ... We're doing a panel. We're doing stuff that's positive. There was nobody that was inconvenienced. [We weren't] blocking traffic. It's All-Star Weekend, it's Saturday night and it's 7 p.m. -- what are we talking about?"The event promoted Brown's performance brand, 741."It was hundreds of thousands of dollars lost down the toilet," he said. "A lot of work that got put into this. A lot of effort got put into this, so I'm more offended for my team. They did a lot of work to do an activation for my brand, 741. We partnered with Oakley."So, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth here in L.A. for the All-Star Weekend. It's super distracting for y'all to even have to ask me questions about this, especially. We should be here talking about basketball, but yesterday wasn't great."In a later social media post in which he tagged the Beverly Hills police, Brown specified, "300k down the drain."Brown also said Jannard was considering filing a lawsuit against Beverly Hills."The owner seemed like he was pretty upset," Brown said. "He wants to file a lawsuit because it's his house. They've done multiple events there, and there's never been an issue. He's done four or five events even that week, he said, and it was never an issue."
