According to multiple people who attended the event, police walked onto the stage when the panel, featuring NBA Players Association executive director and former player Andre Iguodala, was set to begin. As many as seven police cars were parked outside with police telling the estimated 200 attendees to depart the area.
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The City of Beverly Hills released a statement to the Globe claiming the city rejected a permit application for the Brown 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.
“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.”
After his Team Stripes lost in the final of the All-Star Game to Team Stars, Brown addressed the issue and said the police statement is inaccurate.
According to Brown, he was allowed to use the mansion, which is owned by Oakley founder James Jannard, for his 741 brand event. He maintains he did not need a permit for the property, worth an estimated $68 million.
“That was not true. That was not true,” he said of the city’s statement. “We didn’t need a permit because the owner of the house, that was his space. We were family friends. He opened up his festivities to us. We never applied for [a permit] and I think they told the media what we applied and it was denied. There was no permit ever applied for.
“Jim Jannard, he’s the creator of Oakley. I am a brand partner of Oakley. They opened up their house to me.”
Brown said “hundreds of thousands of dollars were wasted” with the cancellation of the panel.
“He allowed us to do an activity in his space, we had a pop-up talking about culture, talking about the future of independency, creative control,” he said. “A bunch of different people that was there to talk about positivity and community and it seemed like somebody didn’t want that to happen.”
Brown said he was “offended” by the city’s statement, which gives the assertion that he ignored the city’s permit denial and continued with his planned event.
“Like we applied for something and didn’t get it and we did it anyway,” he said. “Like we were insubordinate. I know how to follow the rules. I’m smart enough to follow the guidelines. It just seems like somebody didn’t want whatever we had going on to go on because out of everybody that was doing something [in Beverly Hills], it seemed like I was the only one to get shut down.”
There were dozens of All-Star events, such as shoe premieres, parties, film screenings, and pop-up product demonstrations scattered all over Los Angeles in the past few days. There were several other events held in Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles.
“So you tell me how I should feel about it,” he said.
When asked if believed the shut down had racial overtones, he said. “All I am going to say is everybody else that did something, an activation, there seemed to be no issues. It was 7 p.m. It wasn’t 10 p.m. It wasn’t 11 p.m. It wasn’t 12 p.m. 7 p.m. in the day and we’re doing a panel that’s positive. There was nobody that was inconvenienced. It wasn’t blocking traffic.
“It’s All-Star Weekend. It’s Saturday night and it’s 7 p.m. and what are we talking about? And the city had an ordinance to shut us down. No matter what the owner of the house said. No matter what we tried to reason with them. There was no working with them. They didn’t try to work with us. They didn’t try to have a conversation and they shut everything down.
“So the statement they put out there was completely false. I stand by that.”
When he was having a conversation with the officer during the incident, Brown joked that he was getting hard time in Los Angeles because he plays for the Celtics. On Sunday, he called out the city’s practices.
“From what I’ve heard from other people, they’ve had similar experiences in Beverly Hills,” he said “I have no problem with Beverly Hills. I never had an issue with Beverly Hills. This is my first time. It’s a $70 million house that we’re staying at by the way. Who are we bothering? You guys should tell me how I should feel about that. I’m more offended for my [marketing] team because they did a lot of work to do an activation for my brand.
“It leaves a bad taste in my mouth here for All-Star Weekend. It’s super distracting for you guys to even have to ask me questions about this. We should be here talking about basketball. Yesterday wasn’t great.”
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.
