Bulls star DeMar DeRozan is typically a mild-mannered individual who rarely gets rattled on a basketball floor. That was the case until the veteran guard ran into Houston’s resident irritant Dillon Brooks, who has repeatedly shown the ability to get under the skin of the best of them.
During Thursday night’s game between the Bulls and Rockets, DeRozan and Brooks were ejected for an on-court scuffle that had to be broken up by a flock of coaches and teammates. The incident occurred in the third quarter when Rockets guard Jalen Green was shoved to the floor by DeRozan, who hip-checked him while coming off a screen.
As soon as Green landed on the floor, the announcers described DeRozan’s physical play as “uncharacteristic” on his part. They were right. DeRozan is not a dirty player. Brooks immediately lunged at DeRozan from behind, causing the latter to retaliate. Although fisticuffs were not thrown, DeRozan and Brooks locked arms and jawed at each other until they had to be broken up.
After the game, Bulls coach Billy Donovan justified DeRozan’s hard foul on Green as a result of pent-up frustration from previous plays.
“I think there was some contact on some drives, some fouls, previous calls that were not called. Obviously, DeMar jumped off of that screen and fouled Green,” Donovan told reporters, via ESPN.
Meanwhile, Rockets coach Ime Udoka felt Brooks did not warrant an ejection for simply questioning DeRozan for shoving Green to the floor.
“I didn’t love it, being that he got elbowed,” Udoka said of Brooks’ ejection. “He walked over and didn’t say anything crazy. But they say the rules are the guy that kind of instigates it to get it to that step after DeRozan did what he did, he got [ejected] because of that.”
To Udoka’s point, Brooks’ reputation does precede himself and the referees probably don’t give him the benefit of the doubt. A year after leading the NBA in technical fouls with 18, Brooks is once again second in techs and tied second for ejections.
