Dillon Brooks clowned himself off the Grizzlies and into NBA free company

There is not any cause Dillon Brooks ought to be one of many greatest names within the NBA. The 27-year-old ahead wasn’t a primary spherical draft decide, he’s by no means been anyplace near an All-Star, and he’s by no means been a part of a championship group. Still, Brooks grew to become one of the recognizable gamers within the league this season by working his mouth off the ground and blurring the road between clear and soiled performs on it.

The Memphis Grizzlies have seen sufficient. Days after the No. 2 seed Grizzlies have been upset within the first spherical of the 2023 NBA Playoffs by the No. 7 seed Los Angeles Lakers in six video games, the group knowledgeable Brooks he won’t be re-signed this summer time, based on Shams Charania.

It’s uncommon for a group to come back out and say they aren’t excited by retaining one in every of their very own free brokers this early into their offseason. The means this was worded by Charania certain it makes it appear private between Brooks and Memphis:

Charania’s tweet has 20K quote-tweets within the first hour with followers taking the chance to make enjoyable of Brooks. He introduced all of this upon himself.

As we wrote throughout the Grizzlies-Lakers collection, Brooks merely isn’t adequate to be the principle character of the NBA Playoffs. It solely felt like he was due to his questionable decision-making (that’s placing it kindly) each on and off the court docket.

Off the court docket, Brooks gave an all-time ridiculous interview in the course of the collection the place he known as LeBron James outdated and drained.

“I don’t care, he’s old,” Brooks mentioned of the 38-year-old James. “I poke bears. I don’t respect no one until they come and give me 40 (points). I pride myself on what I do on defense and taking any challenge on the board.”

Brooks then proceeded to hit James within the, uh, groin and get ejected from the very subsequent recreation.

None of this was out of character for Brooks. He spent your entire season feuding with established stars, catching the ire of Draymond Green and Klay Thompson particularly. Brooks additionally hit Donovan Mitchell within the “groin” throughout the season. Don’t overlook that he had a grimy play in final yr’s playoffs too when he took out Gary Payton II mid-air on a play that fractured the Warriors guard’s elbow. Brooks was suspended for that one.

For the collection vs. the Lakers, Brooks shot 31.2 p.c from the sphere and 23.8 p.c from three. He merely takes too many photographs and isn’t a adequate shooter to warrant the touches.

For his half, Brooks is saying he desires a much bigger position, and that he couldn’t present all the things he might do on the Grizzlies:

Brooks remains to be a fairly good defensive participant — and he defended LeBron effectively within the first spherical collection for probably the most half. If he can change into a greater shooter, he might nonetheless have quite a lot of worth across the league. Of course, he additionally must tone down the antics that made him well-known however left a nasty style in everybody else’s mouth.

Brooks isn’t the principle cause the Grizzlies’ season is over. Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke have been each harm for the playoffs. Ja Morant suffered an damage, too. Brooks simply didn’t assist himself by lacking so many photographs and speaking a lot trash to probably the greatest gamers of all-time. He’s the kind of man solely hardcore followers ought to know, however as an alternative he acted ridiculous usually sufficient to lift his profile. It solely made the highlight brighter on his disappointing play.

Brooks ought to nonetheless have a market elsewhere, however who’s going to need to put up with him? If the Grizzlies’ assertion appears harsh, simply know Brooks introduced this upon himself.