Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown on how sports can help silence important political issues

"These conversations that we're not having that we should be having right now. But it's SuperBowl, it's All-Star Game. We're using that and people are talking about what's going on in Minnesota, ICE, what's going on around the world. But it's a bigger conversation that needs to be had. There's more stuff that's going on. Sports and politics have always countered each other in a sense where they've worked together in order to balance it out, to generate the society, the bread and circuses that we love and enjoy. But I think that's my biggest misconception, because people think 'Oh, it's just entertainment, don't think too deep on it.' There's people making decisions and strategies behind closed doors. There's partners that are marketing certain products and certain things through their channels and then using the marketability of sports to do so, or they're using the league in itself to push political agendas for certain countries or certain health statuses. It's so political. Everything that you see and how it's marketed and strategized out in front of you is a part of the game. And sometimes I get disheartened because I'm a part of that." "And if they push an agenda that is left field ... people that will be influenced by that, and I didn't say anything," he said. "But some stuff just be over your head, over everybody's head because some people don't think it's deep enough. This (expletive) is strategically planned out. There's people that are making decisions on our behalf as a society, and sports is used as a means to either market that or distract it." Listen to "Havlicek Stole the Pod" on: Blue Wire: iTunes: YouTube: *This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Jaylen Brown on how sports can help silence important political issues*