‘I want them angry’: Dillon Brooks and the birth of a Canadian villain

Dillon Brooks is doing everything in his power to become the NBA’s next villain.

The 27-year-old wing from Mississauga, Ontario has picked up so many technical fouls this season that he earned two one-game suspensions. He punched Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell in the groin, which started a brawl. He shoved a cameraman, which led to a fine. And in last year’s playoffs, he hit Gary Payton II while in the air, causing him to break his elbow.

And Brooks has been going back and forth with the NBA’s reigning irritant extraordinaire, Warriors forward Draymond Green, all season, with their beef spilling off the court into written features and podcast soliloquies.

Classic Dillon Brooks on his confrontation with LeBron James: “I don’t care. He’s old. … I poke bears. I don’t respect someone until he gives me 40.”And Brooks had plenty more to say. pic.twitter.com/uWLONrubPZ

But it all pales in comparison to calling the greatest player of this generation “old” and “tired” last week. Brooks added that LeBron James is “not at the same level that he was when he was on Cleveland winning championships, Miami … I poke bears. I don’t respect no one until they come and give me 40 [points].”

This prompted the Brooks ejection. pic.twitter.com/wxPdIpPoFQ

James, of course, responded in typical James fashion, not by dropping 40 but by dismantling the Grizzlies in a 111-101 win on Saturday night, coming out with a 35-9 first quarter lead and personally finishing with 25-9-5. The performance caused enough frustration for Brooks, who shot 3-13 while acting as James’s primary defender, to get ejected in the third quarter for – and stop me if you have heard this one before – punching James in the groin. He says he was going for the ball,