Phoenix Suns guard Dillon Brooks picked up his league-leading 14th technical foul of the season on Tuesday, Jan. 13, and two more will lead to an automatic one-game suspension.
That seems inevitable, but making history will take work.
Brooks leads Draymond Green and Luka Doncic, each who have nine technical fouls apiece this season. Yet Brooks must accelerate his pace to set the single-season technical fouls record.
That mark belongs to Rasheed Wallace, the retired center who amassed 41 technical fouls during the 2000-01 season when he was playing for the Portland Trail Blazers. Consider this: That means on average Wallace got whistled for a tech every other game during the 82-game regular season.
Brooks’ latest tech came during the Suns’ 127-121 loss to the Miami Heat. That gives him 14 technicals through 40 games for an average of about one technical foul every three games. To catch Wallace, he’ll need 27 techs over the final 42 games of the regular season, an average of .64 technical fouls per game.
Even if the record eludes him, Brooks has established himself as a player adept at drawing technical fouls. He had a career high of 18 technical fouls during the 2022-23 season when he was playing for the Memphis Grizzlies, and he has at least 11 technical fouls over each of the past six seasons.
Not that all of them are deserved. That is, according to Brooks.
‘They give me a (technical) for who I am,” Brooks said after picking up his 13th technical foul against the Washington Wizards on Jan. 11, according to Sports Illustrated. ‘That’s weird and that’s unappreciative.”
Brooks will be facing a disadvantage Wallace didn’t during his record-breaking season.
Before the 2005-2006 season, the NBA implemented the rule that a 16th technical foul triggered an automatic one-game suspension. But during the 2000-01 season, Wallace drew whistle after whistle without worrying about an automatic suspension.
Though Brooks has earned attention for his penchant for technical fouls, he’s helped lead the Suns (24-16) as the team’s second-leading scorer with 21.1 points per game and stellar defense.