If the NBA needs the past-conduct precedent it set by suspending Draymond Inexperienced to keep up a shred of credibility, the Memphis Grizzlies will probably be enjoying with out Dillon Brooks Monday evening in Recreation 4 of their first-round sequence towards the Lakers.
Why? As a result of Brooks was ejected from Recreation 3 on Saturday evening for a flagrant-2 groin shot on LeBron James. A flagrant-2 does not robotically equal a one-game suspension, however when the league overtly introduced that Inexperienced’s punishment was “primarily based partly on Inexperienced’s historical past of unsportsmanlike acts,” it set a precedent that identified soiled gamers are going to punished in a different way, even for comparable and even an identical acts, than these with cleaner reputations.
Brooks’ fame is something however clear. He is broadly thought of to be a grimy, antagonistic participant; principally Draymond Inexperienced, solely not nearly as good. And the numbers again it up. Brooks led the league this season with 18 technical fouls. His two flagrants won’t sound like so much, however no one within the league had greater than three.
Brooks has been taunting LeBron within the media all sequence. If the league takes all of this under consideration and nonetheless does not droop Brooks, the Inexperienced suspension, which I’ve argued was an overreaction, will appear to be a good much less justifiable verdict.
Brooks’ act itself, simply as Inexperienced stepping on the chest of Domantas Sabonis’ after Sabonis wrapped up his ankle and he misplaced his steadiness, in all probability wasn’t price an ejection. You would argue he was going for the ball when LeBron crossed behind his again, however you might additionally argue Brooks main with the again of his hand isn’t precisely a pure means of going for a steal.
Both means, the league has to deliver Brooks’ historical past into this choice. The Inexperienced suspension is simply too current to not err on the aspect of upholding its precedent.
Including ore context to this case, each James Harden and Joel Embiid had been not too long ago hit with flagrants for delivering groin photographs. Embiid’s got here in Recreation 3, and was unquestionably probably the most egregious of all of them — a full-on kick from the bottom up with out completely no declare to making an attempt to make a authentic basketball play, which is likely one of the elements that’s supposed to tell flagrant rulings.
Embiid wasn’t even given a flagrant-2 for this. Only a flagrant-1, which does not lead to an ejection. This was a ridiculous ruling. There was nothing even remotely near a basketball play in that motion. Certainly, consistency isn’t a energy of NBA officiating or subsequent punishment. There is no such thing as a affordable world during which Embiid isn’t ejected for that, however Harden is for this …
Nonetheless, Harden was ejected for this, and it largely mirrors Brooks’ infraction. You possibly can have a look at that play and say that Harden put a bit further precision and pop on that elbow, however it’s at the least controversial that he was merely making a ahead basketball transfer in cramped area, simply because it’s at the least controversial that Brooks was making a play on the ball with LeBron and Inexperienced was reestablishing his steadiness after Sabonis grabbed his foot.
So if all these performs that resulted in ejection, then the one difficulty at hand is how they’re going to be dominated upon after the actual fact. Harden, regardless of being issued a flagrant-2, was not suspended for Recreation 4. The rationale for that, after all, could be that he does not have a historical past of some of these incidents. However Brooks does.
And that is the precedent the league established with its ruling on Inexperienced — that the identical precise act might be, and actually now has to be, adjudicated in a different way for various gamers with totally different histories. Harden will get a cross. Inexperienced didn’t. And by that customary, Brooks can not, both. Nicely, until the NBA needs to look much more silly for the Inexperienced suspension.