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Memphis Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks took an historically large “L” when the Grizz were eliminated from the NBA playoffs by the Los Angeles Lakers.
No, it wasn’t because his team lost. Or, at least, it wasn’t solely because his team lost.
Instead, it’s because Brooks decided he needed to talk a whole lot of trash to perhaps the greatest player of all-time, LeBron James.
Following a Game 2 victory that saw Memphis even the series at a game apiece, Brooks called James “old” and stated that he didn’t respect him.
By basketball standards, the 38-year-old James is old. But he’s still one of the game’s best players. James took over in a Lakers blowout in Game 3 and LA went on to win three of the next four games in the series.
Brooks took the loss pretty hard.
He didn’t talk to the media after Game 3 or his team’s elimination in Game 6. That led the league to fine Brooks for a violation of its media policy.
Would he do it all differently if given the chance? As it turns out, the answer is “no.”
Brooks told Damichael Cole of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis that he doesn’t regret his comments toward James.
“No, that’s who I am,” Brooks told Cole. “I don’t regret it. I’m a competitor. I compete.”
Brooks also said that he doesn’t feel he gave James any extra motivation.
“It has been a little while, so he was ready to play,” Brooks said. “Overall, we just got to be better.”
Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman didn’t seem to agree.
“I think there were certainly self-created distractions we were navigating in this series,” Kleiman said. “As we’re looking forward and thinking about what comes next, those are all things that we’re going to keep in mind from a competitive standpoint.”
Brooks is now an unrestricted free agent, and Memphis has a tough choice to make.