Dillon Brooks spent the better part of Wednesday offering context on what led to his fiery exit and public clash with Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James in Phoenix Suns‘ narrow 116-114 loss on Sunday night, pulling back the curtain on emotions that have been building between the two veterans all season.
Brooks, who hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 12.2 seconds remaining, was ultimately tossed after he bumped James in the aftermath of that shot, a sequence that proved decisive in the final minutes of one of the NBA‘s most talked-about matchups this season.
“It was a big shot, a huge moment for the team,” Brooks said. “That’s my problem throughout my whole career is that I let those things happen, and then I’m off the floor. At the end of the day, how much people hate on me and say I’m not a good player, but when I’m on the floor, it changes the whole game.”
Brooks’ version of the buildup
The Suns rallied from a 20-point deficit and were within inches of stealing the win before the late chaos unfolded. The key play that preceded Brooks‘ ejection involved physical contact between James and Brooks on the followthrough of Brooks‘ 3-point shot, contact that was not whistled as a foul by officials.
Brooks turned that contact into a confrontation, and officials flagged him for his second technical foul after the Suns guard made contact with James during the dead-ball sequence. That second technical resulted in an automatic ejection under NBA rules.
James stepped to the free-throw line to shoot the technical, missed, then went on to make two clutch free throws on the next possession that ultimately sealed the Lakers‘ win.
Despite the result, Brooks made it clear his reaction was rooted in competitiveness and history, not mere spectacle.
“I guess he’s a social media junkie,” Brooks said of James when asked why the Lakers star seemed frustrated during the sequence.
“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 and I’m all for that.”
James, for his part, described the exchanges with Brooks as simply part of competing at a high level.
“We’re going to get up in each other’s face,” James said after the game. “Tried not to go borderline with it. I don’t really take it there. But we just competed and did that almost all the way to the end of the game.”
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