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Dillons Brooks will not be suspended for Game 4 of Lakers-Grizzlies after ejection

The Grizzlies are lobbying for the NBA to not suspend Dillon Brooks after his Flagrant 2 ejection vs. the Lakers on Saturday night, and LeBron James declined to argue for him to be suspended.

2023 NBA Playoffs - Memphis Grizzlies v Los Angeles Lakers Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images

Part-time Grizzlies forward and full-time trolling enthusiast Dillon Brooks was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul and automatically ejected from Game 3 of Lakers vs. Grizzlies on Saturday night for hitting LeBron James in the crown jewels just 17 seconds into the second half of the eventual 111-101 loss, and one of the major questions moving forward into Game 4 is whether or not the NBA will suspend Brooks an additional game based on his history of at best skirting the line, and at worst outright dirtiness.

Brooks was suspended for one game in the playoffs last year after hitting Gary Payton II from behind, leading to a fractured elbow for the guard, and has a lengthy history of villainy that most notably includes other nut shots, various feuds with practically every other team in the league, and pushing a cameraman. LeBron was obviously just fine after shaking off the hit to the nether regions, but as we’ve seen with the NBA’s recent punishment of Draymond Green, the league does take past actions into account when making these decisions.

In this situation, though, Brooks will not be suspended. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported on Sunday that the extent of Brooks’ punishment will be his ejection from Game 3.

After Saturday’s game, the Grizzlies, as one would expect, were lobbying for the league to let Brooks play the next game, claiming he was just going for the ball — rather than LeBalls — when the play happened:

However, as my friend Brian Kamentzky of Locked on Lakers correctly noted...

James declined to argue for a suspension postgame, showing admirable self-control by not begging the NBA to let Brooks play and continue his ongoing, 13-40 brickfest from the field:

We’ll see if Brooks takes the (hilarious) Green route of leaking that he got an x-ray on his hand to make sure it was ok after hitting James below the belt, but he declined the opportunity to argue his own case on Saturday night, uttering a combination of words he has probably never used before in this specific order when tracked down by Tim MacMahon of ESPN postgame:

The league’s decision had to be a swift one with Game 4 on Monday. Considering the amount of time he missed during the game, it seemed a safe bet he would not be suspended further, as turned out to be the case.

You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.

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