Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks added another chapter in his rivalry with LeBron James when he was tossed for chest-bumping LeBron in the final seconds in a 116-114 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, Dec. 14.
Brooks has long been known as an NBA pest, trying to get into opponents’ heads in order to elicit a reaction or throw them off their game. He certainly applies that approach to James.
‘I guess he’s a social-media junkie,’ Brooks said Wednesday, Dec. 17, during his the first public comments since the ejection. ‘He be all over the socials, so he be seeing I guess what I’m saying. … Like I’ve (said) he thinks that people should think a way about him or not say nothing about him or play a certain way, and I’m not going to play that way. He gets in his moods or in his modes or whatever it is. I’m all for that.’
Brooks, who is averaging a career-high 21.6 points a game this season, also said he will learn from the ejection and try to control his emotions so he can stay on the floor at the end of critical games.
‘That’s my problem through my whole career, is I let those things happen and then I’m off the floor,’ Brooks said. ‘Then at the end of the day, how much people hate on me and say I’m not a good player and all that, but when I’m on the floor it changes the whole game.’
In Sunday’s game, Brooks had given Phoenix its final lead with his 3-pointer with 12.2 seconds left, and after falling to the ground, he got up and chest-bumped James, earning him a second technical foul and the ejection.