“The King” may still sit on the throne, but he’s probably sitting more awkwardly this morning.
On Saturday night, the feud between Memphis’ Dillon Brooks and Lakers star LeBron James reached new highs (or lows, depending on how you look at it) after Brooks hit James in the groin and left the aging superstar in a writhing mass on the floor.
Dillon Brooks was ejected after receiving a flagrant 2 for this hit to LeBron. pic.twitter.com/LL9CLRAryy
— ESPN (@espn) April 23, 2023
Brooks was ejected shortly after video review, to the great delight of the thousands of Lakers fans who booed Brooks off the court.
“I didn’t make a statement,” James said after the Lakers victory. “I’ve been doing this too long. I’m not making any statements. We had the opportunity to come home and play well on our home floor, and we did that. No statement was made. We just wanted to play well, and we got a win. I don’t need to make statements.”
For his part, Brooks made a statement after Memphis’ Game 2 victory when he called James “old.”
“I don’t care — he’s old. You know what I mean?” Brooks said after a poor shooting performance from James in Game 2. “I was waiting for that. I was expecting him to do that Game 4, Game 5. He wanted to say something when I got my fourth foul. He should have been saying that earlier on. But I poke bears. I don’t respect no one until they come and give me 40.”
The Lakers won the game 111-101 and lead the series against Memphis 2-1.