The NBA fined Dillon Brooks $35,000 Friday for pushing a camera person to the ground while chasing a loose ball in Wednesday’s game against the Heat.
It was a slap on the wrist for a player who deserved much more as an habitual line-stepper.
The push wasn’t incredibly hard, nor did it appear to happen with the intent to injure. If it was any other player, there was enough reasonable doubt to think it wasn’t intentional at all. But everything we know about Brooks removes that doubt.
Even the NBA knows he did it on purpose. Otherwise there wouldn’t have been a punishment. In a statement, the league called the incident an “unsportsmanlike act of shoving a camera person.”
Dillon Brooks was fined $35k for “the unsportsmanlike act of shoving a camera person on the sideline after pursuing a loose ball,” the NBA announced. pic.twitter.com/dPFLnzFFcc
— ESPN (@espn) March 17, 2023
Just look at the follow-through on the push and the casual walkaway. Whether he wanted to hurt the guy or not, injury was possible. Brooks should’ve been suspended a game at least. Maybe more.
A $35,000 fine to someone with a base salary of $11.4 million is a drop in the bucket. Brooks makes about $139,000 a game, according to figures from Spotrac. This fine is equivalent to suspending him for a single quarter.
I’m not a fan of punishment for the sake of it, but a suspension would’ve made clear this won’t be tolerated. When Dennis Rodman kicked a camera person in 1997, he was suspended 11 games and fined $25,000. The NBA didn’t send that message this time, which is a shame because nobody deserves the indignity of being pushed on their back for no reason. Especially not the very camera people who help broadcast the game and its players to the masses.
That it was Brooks should’ve only made the decision easier. This is the same player who caused Gary Payton II to break his elbow with a questionable foul in last year’s playoffs and was suspended a game earlier this season for hitting Donovan Mitchell in the groin.
Mitchell summed it up perfectly at the time: “That’s just who he is. We’ve seen it a bunch in this league with him.”
The NBA shouldn’t have needed to see more to sideline someone who continues to push the boundaries of what’s acceptable behavior.
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