Call him a villain. Dillon Brooks doesn’t care. Say he’s arrogant, a bully, toxic to a team. He’s heard it, read it, doesn’t think much of it. “Everyone wants to hate on something,” says Brooks. Say he’s the reason for the Grizzlies’ first-round elimination from the playoffs last April, because early in the series against the Lakers he had the gall to publicly poke LeBron James. He thinks it’s stupid, but whatever. “We didn’t have our whole squad, and they did,” says Brooks. “People forgot about that. Just threw it on me.” The bad guy? Villain Brooks? He doesn’t want the label. But he’ll wear it. “Everyone can’t be the hero,” says Brooks. “I’d rather be what was chosen for me.”
Chosen. On this point, Brooks is emphatic. He didn’t dream of being scorched on a podcast by Draymond Green, scuffling with Donovan Mitchell or engaging in a brief blood feud with James. At Oregon, Brooks’s viral moment was being admonished by Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski in the handshake line after he took a late three in a blowout NCAA tournament win. “His fault,” says Brooks. He didn’t set out to be an enforcer. And a villain? “Not really,” says Brooks.“Because villains never win.”
Jeffery A. Salter/Sports Illustrated
