Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks got fined.
But Brooks got fined for only his actions on the court (watch them here) during Memphis’ loss to the Mavericks on Wednesday – not his post-game comments.
NBA release:Memphis Grizzlies guard-forward Dillon Brooks has been fined $25,000 for aggressively confronting a game official and failing to leave the court in a timely manner upon his ejection, it was announced today by Byron Spruell, President, League Operations.
The incident took place after Brooks was assessed his second technical foul with 27.5 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of the Grizzlies’ 104-96 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Dec. 8 at FedExForum.
A reminder what Brooks said:
As you saw in the game, we’ve been playing physical basketball for about a week now. And all of a sudden, new officials come in here and they call an inconsistent game. They want to call ticky-tack in the first half and then in the second half they want to call nothing. And then you got guys getting undercut, being getting hit on the floor, no call. There’s a lack of protection of the players and that’s the main thing, I felt like this crew came out there and just made it about them and that’s bull.
Obviously I can’t put it all on them. We got to get the 50/50 balls, you got to be able to rebound the basketball, you got to be able to hit shots in timely ways, but this crew did not protect the players. They just wanted to get the game over with and that’s bulls***. That’s bulls*** from the very beginning. That’s bull.
Players who commit multiple violations sometimes have their punishments combined into a less severe form than if each transgression were evaluated separately. A complain-more and-save discount.
But it’s surprising Brooks’ quotes weren’t even mentioned.
Hopefully, this opens the door for ejected players to speak their mind without the league cracking down.
