Dillon Brooks feels bad about what happened between he and Gary Payton II, and while his Memphis Grizzlies teammates have his back, they’re also willing to admit that he crossed a line.
Brooks drew the ire of the Golden State Warriors during Game 2 of their second-round series against the Grizzlies when he injury Payton. Brooks was chasing Payton down, and as he went up for a layup, Brooks went to the air and hit him in the head, sending him crashing to the ground. Payton stayed down for a while, and later on was ruled out with a fractured left elbow.
It was an ugly play, one that prompted even Steve Kerr to shred Brooks. During an appearance on the “Lowe Post” podcast, Brooks’ teammate, Brandon Clarke, offered his take on it.
“Playoff ball is tough," Clarke said. "There’s so many emotions, there’s so much going on and everybody wants to win so bad. I think players can get caught up in that and kind of act out when they shouldn’t act out. I think Dillon obviously feels bad, I haven’t really talked with him much, but I saw that Gary is injured from the play.
“I watched it again and Dillon definitely fouled him way too hard and did something that he shouldn’t have done. But it’s tough, there’s obviously falls every game that could definitely result in somebody getting hurt, but you really don’t want to see somebody get hurt off a flagrant, obviously. I know that Dillon feels bad, it’s just a real bad part of the game, but hopefully we all can move on from that.”
Brooks was slapped with a flagrant two and ejected, and the league will decide before Saturday’s Game 3 if he should be suspended. The Grizzlies ended up winning that game to level the series at one.
Whether Brooks gets a ban probably won’t do much to get him out of the villain role he’s now in for Warriors fans.
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