Memphis Grizzlies’ guard Dillon Brooks lashed out at the media and fans for making him out as a “villain” in the NBA.
Brooks, making his first comments since he was ejected from Saturday’s Game 3 for hitting Los Angeles Lakers’ forward LeBron James in the groin, blamed his ejection on the perception of him as a dirty player.
“The media making me a villain, the fans making me a villain and then that just creates a whole different persona on me,” Brooks told reporters Sunday. “So now you think I intended to hit LeBron James in the (groin). I’m playing basketball. I’m a basketball player. If you think I did that, that means you think I’m that type of person.”
The game was pretty much over when Brooks was ejected just seconds into the third quarter. The Grizzlies trailed by 16 at that moment and lost 111-101 as the Lakers grabbed a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven first-round series. Game 4 is Monday night in Los Angeles.
Brooks, who finished the game with seven points on 3-of-13 shooting, along with two rebounds and one assist in 19 minutes, is partly to blame for all of the negative attention he’s receiving.
He called the 38-year-old James “old” and indicated the superstar hadn’t earned his respect after the Grizzlies’ 103-93 win in Game 2. James confronted Brooks and the two exchanged words on the court before Game 3. James and the Lakers may have written Brooks’ words on a white board inside their locker room before the game because they blitzed the Grizzlies and ran out to a 35-9 lead after the first quarter and never looked back in Game 3.
Brooks “revealed” what James said.
“He told me his birthday,” Brooks told reporters Sunday.
James didn’t reveal what was said, but he did say he wanted to have the conversation with Brooks on the court for everyone to see.
“It wasn’t private because everybody caught it, everybody saw it,” James told reporters after Game 3. “There’s nothing private about it. It’s very, very public. I like it that way.”