Dillon Brooks is today's number one villain. And quite frankly, there's nobody even remotely close to him.
Every great movie needs to have a villain. In the NBA, there's been one in almost every era. It started with the Bad Boy Pistons in the 80s. Then, it shifted to Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 90s (mostly because they were too good). The Portland ‘Jail Blazers' were the biggest villains to start the new millennium before Ron Artest ignited the Malice at the Palace. In the 2010s it was shared between LeBron James and Kevin Durant for joining superteams. Now that we're in the 2020s, that title solely belongs to Dillon Brooks.
Brooks has been making waves the entire 2022-2023 season for having heated encounters with All-Stars, NFL Hall of Famers, cameramen, and almost everyone on the Golden State Warriors. His antics have already cost him more than $336,000 in fines this season and he led the league in technical fouls (18).
If you think Brooks' confidence and trash talk only stem from the success of the Memphis Grizzlies, you'd be mistaken. In fact, if you ask any of his former coaches and teammates, it's always been in his DNA. One article from The Athletic wrote that Brooks' high school coach once had to ground him in his hotel room just to control his aggression. When he was in Oregon, former teammate, and current Toronto Raptor Chris Boucher said Dillon Brooks' energy and aggression were never a problem and even helped ignite the team, per thestar.com. Now that he's in the pros, is it fair to say he's gone way too far?
It's understandable to talk trash in the middle of games or even call out opponents postgame. What you can never do is physically hurt your opponents.
During the 2022 Western Conference Semifinals, he recklessly tried to block Gary Payton II's shot attempt. The result? Payton missed a few games due to a hand injury. This season, almost every star of every team has locked horns with Dillon Brooks at some point.
He punched Donovan Mitchell in an area no man should ever be punched. In a road game against the Lakers, he sparked a beef with Shannon Sharpe. The short feud even got Ja Morant's father involved. Most recently, in a road game against the Miami Heat, Brooks injured an innocent cameraman while he was trying to recover a loose ball.
If these antics keep up, Brooks might just go down as the most hated player of all time.
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