The NBA playoffs can get a bit intense at times and that was put at the forefront the past week when former Duck and current Memphis Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks fouled former Beaver current Golden State guard Gary Payton II in Game 2 of their series.
Payton received a broken elbow on the play and Brooks received a one-game suspension.
“It’s in the past,” Brooks said after the Grizzlies’ shootaround before Game 4. “I didn’t mean for it to hurt somebody. If I were to take it back in a moment, I would. But it’s in the past.”
With the Portland TrailBlazers out of the post-season, a lot of NBA fans in the state have paid close attention to this particular series which featured two recent college basketball greats in Oregon.
Now it features just one.
On the play in question, Payton was going for a lay-in and Brooks, who was trailing the play, swiped at the ball. But instead, he swiped Payton’s head, which sent him into the basket standard. The fall to the floor was what broke Payton’s elbow.
Dillon Brooks was ejected for this flagrant 2 on Gary Payton.
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) May 4, 2022
“I was trying to make a play on the ball. And he was running full speed, I jumped and he adjusted,” Brooks said as he was describing the play to reporters.
Immediately after the incident, Brooks did go to see if Payton was all right.
The two teams meet for Game 4 tonight with the Warriors up 2-1 in the series. It will also be the first time Brooks plays since the flagrant foul and he will surely get a massive negative reception in front of the Warriors fans. But as Oregon fans well know, Brooks thrives on the adversity of playing on the road and usually performs at his best in situations such as these.
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