The Grizzlies are looking like the bad-breaker-uppers Jerry Seinfeld used to joke about.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that the Grizzlies informed impending free agent Dillon Brooks that they would not bring him back “under any circumstances.”
Brooks prodded LeBron James during the Grizzlies-Lakers first round series, which seventh-seeded Los Angeles won in six games.
In addition to poking LeBron James by calling him “old,” Brooks ducked out of media obligations after at least three games.
NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins and Bill Simmons thought the Grizzlies organisation could have handled the breakup with more dignity.
“I expected them not to [bring back Brooks], but it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it,” Perkins said on ESPN’s “NBA Today” on Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t think it’s funny how the Grizzlies are handling this situation with Dillon Brooks. It’s one thing to clown and joke about him throughout the series, but when you come out and say that you’re not gonna bring him back no matter the circumstances, like zero chances.
“This guy is up for a contract. This guy spent six years in your organisation, and a couple of those years he was actually great for you. So my thing is when it comes down to affecting a livelihood, and it’s also a reflection of your organisation, this is not how you want to be trending.”
Brooks shot 31.2 percent from the field in the first-round series.
Perkins continued to say that if the Grizzlies want to be “eye candy” and be an attractive destination for other free agents, they should treat players better on the way out.
“You don’t want them to feel like, ‘Oh, this is how they did Dillon Brooks,’ because that’s how I would look at it, and it’s just very disturbing to me that they handled him like this,” Perkins said.
“If they didn’t want to sign him, so what? Don’t sign him! But you don’t have to put it out there like that like he committed a damn crime or some off-court distractions, because he was none of that. The kid played with heart and passion every single night. No matter what he shot from the field, he brought his game every single night when it came to competing between those lines.”
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Simmons, the founder of The Ringer who obsessively follows the NBA, was on a similar wavelength.
“Not a Brooks fan but ‘Under any circumstances’ is s–tty,” Simmons tweeted. “The Grizz might want to look in the mirror for the culture they’ve created.”
What Simmons means about the “mirror” is that the Grizzlies fostered a culture of brash smack talk and general un-seriousness.
Even as Brooks became the avatar of excessive trash talk due to his aggressive comments towards LeBron James, he was far from the only one on the team who sought a rise out of opponents in the past several seasons.
This article first appeared on The New York Postand was reproduced with permission.
