After 16 technical fouls, an NBA player gets a one-game suspension. It’s no surprise Dillon Brooks was the first one this season.
Brooks got his 16th technical after he and Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic jawed at each other, both getting double technicals. As usual, it was predicated by a questionable play by Brooks, who yanked Jokic’s arm before the confrontations.
Last year, Brooks was ejected from a playoff game and suspended from another after breaking Gary Payton II’s elbow with a flagrant foul.
Last month, the NBA suspended him for starting a fight, after hitting Donovan Mitchell in a very sensitive area.
Coincidentally, the suspension-triggering technical call came the same day as a profile from ESPN called him “Dillon the Villain.”
Brooks also expressed his dislike of the Warriors’ Draymond Green, who has 15 technicals on the season, one away from a suspension of his own.
“I don’t like Draymond at all,” Brooks told ESPN. “Draymond talks a lot. Gets away with a lot, too. His game is cool — with Golden State — but if you put him anywhere else, you’re not going to know who Draymond is.”
Brooks also clearly talks a lot, like when he called the Grizzlies a “dynasty” last year, before they’d even won a playoff series. Now Memphis will be without its defensive enforcer for a game, but they’ll also be without a 31.9% 3-point shooter.
Brooks should hope that during these suspensions, Memphis doesn’t notice their offense is a lot better without him.