Dillon Brooks will never change.
His metric for success is supposed to be his aggressive defense and ability to knock down open threes. However, for the last few years in Memphis, their supposed 3-and-D wing was a 0-level scorer who resorted to buffoonish antics to keep pace on defense. In his preseason debut against the Indiana Pacers, Brooks showcased the depths of his idiocy by going back to the familiar role of nut tapping.
After initially getting called for a defensive foul seconds earlier, Brooks was whistled a second time for a flagrant 2 tech after violently slapping Daniel Theis in the groin while trying to run through his screen. It’s a move Brooks has tried before. Somehow most NBA players and professional boxers are able to go their entire career without needlessly punching opponents below the midsection. Worse, he still refused to take responsibility for his clownish behavior.
“I might have tapped him below the waist, but he got right back up. I don’t know. It’s weird that every time it happens to me, I get picked on. I guess it’s part of reputation.” Brooks told the media after the Rockets preseason opener.
Somehow, Brooks hits below the belt more than prime Johnny Knoxville, and he’s under the impression that he’s the victim. Over here in reality, the worst form of Brooks emerges when he gets frustrated. That’s when Brooks becomes a vindictive wing defender who can be easily baited into putting himself and his team in a hole. He shot Gary Payton Jr. out of the air on a breakaway layup attempt during Game 2 of Memphis’ 2022 playoff clash with the Warriors. The hit and The Mittens’ impact with the ground resulted in a fractured elbow. He’s one of the few active dingbats who could get eviscerated by Draymond Green on a podcast and have his biggest haters siding with the vet who has accumulated more techs than anyone over the last decade.
Brooks has made too many overtly dirty plays to count. Donovan Mitchell nearly unloaded on him during a regular season matchup for taking a jab at Mitchell’s groin after faking a cartoonish fall.
He plucked LeBron James in the gonads when he got cooked for running his mouth and referring to the all-time leading scorer as “old” during the playoffs. After the Lakers series, he resorted to page 1 of the guilty party handbook to deflect blame.
“The media making me a villain, the fans making me a villain, and then that just creates a whole different persona on me,” Brooks whined after his ejection for punching LeBron below the belt.
If you thought he would change up after the nadir he hit last season, those dreams were dashed by the Rockets and the $80 million they threw at his feet. He’s showing everyone that he’s arguably gotten worse, and there’s not much anyone can do about it.
