Dillon Brooks clowned himself off the Grizzlies and into NBA free agency

There is no reason Dillon Brooks should be one of the biggest names in the NBA. The 27-year-old forward wasn’t a first round draft pick, he’s never been anywhere close to an All-Star, and he’s never been part of a championship team. Still, Brooks became one of the most recognizable players in the league this season by running his mouth off the floor and blurring the line between clean and dirty plays on it.

The Memphis Grizzlies have seen enough. Days after the No. 2 seed Grizzlies were upset in the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs by the No. 7 seed Los Angeles Lakers in six games, the team informed Brooks he will not be re-signed this summer, according to Shams Charania.

It’s rare for a team to come out and say they aren’t interested in retaining one of their own free agents this early into their offseason. The way this was worded by Charania sure it makes it seem personal between Brooks and Memphis:

Charania’s tweet has 20K quote-tweets in the first hour with fans taking the opportunity to make fun of Brooks. He brought all of this upon himself.

As we wrote during the Grizzlies-Lakers series, Brooks simply isn’t good enough to be the main character of the NBA Playoffs. It only felt like he was because of his questionable decision-making (that’s putting it kindly) both on and off the court.

Off the court, Brooks gave an all-time ridiculous interview in the middle of the series where he called LeBron James old and tired.

“I don’t care, he’s old,” Brooks said of the 38-year-old James. “I poke bears. I don’t respect no one until they come and give me 40 (points). I pride myself on what I do on defense and taking any challenge on the board.”

Brooks then proceeded to hit James in the, uh, groin and get ejected from the very next game.

None of this was out of character for Brooks. He spent the entire season feuding with established stars, catching the ire of Draymond Green and Klay Thompson in particular. Brooks also hit Donovan Mitchell in the “groin” during the season. Don’t forget that he had a dirty play in last year’s playoffs too when he took out Gary Payton II mid-air on a play that fractured the Warriors guard’s elbow. Brooks was suspended for that one.

For the series vs. the Lakers, Brooks shot 31.2 percent from the field and 23.8 percent from three. He simply takes too many shots and isn’t a good enough shooter to warrant the touches.

For his part, Brooks is saying he wants a bigger role, and that he couldn’t show everything he could do on the Grizzlies:

Brooks is still a pretty good defensive player — and he defended LeBron well in the first round series for the most part. If he can become a better shooter, he could still have a lot of value around the league. Of course, he also needs to tone down the antics that made him famous but left a bad taste in everyone else’s mouth.

Brooks isn’t the main reason the Grizzlies’ season is over. Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke were both hurt for the playoffs. Ja Morant suffered an injury, too. Brooks just didn’t help himself by missing so many shots and talking so much trash to one of the best players of all-time. He’s the type of guy only hardcore fans should know, but instead he acted ridiculous often enough to raise his profile. It only made the spotlight brighter on his disappointing play.

Brooks should still have a market elsewhere, but who is going to want to put up with him? If the Grizzlies’ statement seems harsh, just know Brooks brought this upon himself.