It only took Dillon Brooks four minutes and 33 seconds of practice basketball to get thrown out for the first time as a Houston Rocket. The NBA just gave him his first fine.
The NBA fined Brooks $25,000 on Thursday for “recklessly making contact with Indiana Pacers center Daniel Theis in the groin area.” This means that Brooks hit Theis in the crotch during a preseason game between the Pacers and the Rockets.
Brooks got a flagrant two fouls for the hit, which means he was automatically thrown out of the game.
Brooks signed a four-year, $80 million deal with the Rockets during the summer. He had previously spent six seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, where he became famous for his unfair fight with LeBron James. “Dillon Brooks groin strike” sounds like a name, you know; James got hit in the same way by Brooks in the NBA playoffs.
Brooks said that the media made him look like a bad guy when he got a lot of bad press during that show. When asked Tuesday if he thought he was being picked on because of his image, he said the same thing:
“I’m not sure.” What is the name? What is my name? It’s called Dillon the Villain, I guess,”
When asked about the play with Theis, Brooks said that he was only trying to get around the big man’s screen:
"I tried to navigate a screen, I might have tapped him below the waist. But you know he got right back up," Brooks said. "I don't know, it's weird that every time it happens to me I get picked on. But I guess it's just a part of the reputation."
Brooks clarified that he didn’t want to change how he played when he left the Grizzlies. They said they had no plans to bring him back “under any circumstances.” The Rockets will have been okay with that since they brought him and former Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet to help one of the NBA’s youngest teams last season by adding some senior presence.
