Warriors’ Klay Thompson sticks up for Steph Curry after latest flagrant foul from Grizzlies’ Dillon Brooks
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Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson was given a technical foul after sticking up for his fellow Splash Brother Steph Curry during Friday’s playoff game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
With 3:23 left in the second quarter, Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks — who has become a villain in the eyes of Golden State fans — shoved Curry in the back while players were trying to jostle for a rebound on the Grizzlies’ side of the court. A foul was immediately called on Brooks.
Thompson then went up to Brooks and started jawing at him. An official came up behind both guards and assessed a technical foul for each guy in the argument. Brooks’ foul on Curry was upgraded to a Flagrant 1 after a review.
Brooks drew the ire of Warriors fans, and perhaps some neutral basketball fans as well, in Game 2 of this playoff series when he shoved Gary Payton II out of the air during a breakaway layup attempt. The play, deemed a Flagrant 2 foul for unnecessary and excessive contact, fractured Payton’s elbow, which understandably infuriated the Warriors.
That play has followed Brooks throughout this series. Every time he’s touched the ball while in San Francisco, the entire Chase Center crowd rains down boos upon him. The negative response was something that Thompson was vocally supportive of just a few days prior to Game 6.
Brooks did eventually express remorse for his actions against Payton, but those words likely ring hollow now with his latest on-court move. Perhaps if he truly wanted to show he was sorry, he simply would not have shoved Curry in the back and acted unbothered when confronted about it.