Oregon star Dillon Brooks may have pulled a Draymond Green out of his hat during Saturday night’s game against Washington State.
Throughout 2016, a hot topic in basketball seemed to be the inadvertent or fully intended kicks to the groin. This most notably came with Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green, who infamously kicked Steven Adams of the Oklahoma City Thunder below the belt. He would get called for the use of his legs in future games, something that has seemingly moved down to college basketball with what Oregon’s Dillon Brooks did.
During Saturday night’s game against Washington State, Brooks drove to the basket and missed a contested shot. He tried grabbing the rebound in between mutliple Cougars, but would not be successful.
While down, though, Brooks’ leg, placed under Washington State’s Josh Hawkinson, flew up in the air and directly kicked him in the groin. The senior forward immediately went down to the ground in pain.
Brooks would get a Flagrant 2 foul and be ejected from the game. This came around the midway point of the first half.
It is difficult to tell if there had been intention there, especially if Brooks did not realize that Hawkinson hovered above him. However, given past instances in the NBA and the recent Grayson Allen tripping epidemic, did they have much of a choice? By reviewing the replay, it is possible that the decision became clear to eject the Ducks star whether he did this purposefully or not. If he had and the referees did not eject him, would there be an outcry over this?
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The next step will be if Dillon Brooks receives a suspension. If not, it is possible this situation blows over in the coming days.