Houston forward Dillon Brooks was ejected 4:33 into his first game with the Rockets for a flagrant foul 2 to the groin of Indiana Pacers center Daniel Theis on Tuesday night.
Brooks said after the Rockets' 122-103 win in their preseason opener against the visiting Pacers that he didn't mean to strike Theis and chalked the ejection up to his reputation. «I tried to navigate a screen,» Brooks said, according to the Houston Chronicle. «I might have tapped him below waist.
But he got right back up. I don't know. It's weird that every time it happens to me, I get picked on. I guess it's part of reputation.» Brooks, then with the Memphis Grizzlies, gave a similar explanation after being ejected for a flagrant foul 2 in Game 3 of last season's playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers, when he struck LeBron James in the groin. «The media making me a villain, the fans making me a villain and then that just creates a whole different persona on me,» Brooks said in April.
As for Tuesday night's toss, Brooks said: «For a flagrant 2 foul like that, you got to know if a person is doing it on purpose or intention.