Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks received his 13th technical of the season in Sunday night’s 112-93 win over the Washington Wizards. Brooks is now just three technical fouls away from a one-game suspension with 43 regular-season games remaining.
Nine of those techs are “well deserved,” Brooks says. The other handful? That’s more to do with something else.
“They give me a (technical) for who I am. That’s weird, and that’s unappreciative,” Brooks said. “This is the same ref who gets manhandled in the Laker game and doesn’t give a (technical) out. I’m not going to give any names. You can go look up who it is, but this guy needs to get looked at seriously.
“This is why I have a stigma with refs, and this is why they’re so quick to (technical) me.”
Brooks is referring to referee Scott Twardoski, who officiated the Suns’ 116-114 loss to the Lakers on Dec. 14.
Brooks has a reputation for getting technical fouls throughout his career because of his play style. He had 13 technical fouls through his first three years in the league, but has recorded at least 10 in each of the last six seasons.
During that six-season span, including this year, Brooks leads the NBA with 85 technical fouls. Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic is second with 80 and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green is third with 77.
The Suns forward set a career-high with 18 technical fouls in the 2022-23 season with the Memphis Grizzlies, and was given 16 last season with the Houston Rockets.
With 13 technical fouls through 33 games this season, Brooks is on pace to shatter his count from previous seasons.
“I’ll never give the refs credit for what I do,” Brooks said. “They say I antagonize or taunt when I’m speaking to a person who the possession before pushed me in my chest, which I got a (technical) a past game before. Then jog down, call me out my name, I can’t say on media cause I’ll get fined like $50,000, $25,000.”
However, despite leading the league in technical fouls and being three away from a one-game suspension with more than half the season remaining, Brooks isn’t changing how he plays.
“I still be me and that’s why I’m playing the way I’m playing at an all-time high,” Brooks said. “Today, I was even toned down. I was not really being myself until I got called out my name.”
Brooks added the refs gave two technical fouls and he knocked down two threes. He contributed 16 points, one rebound and one assist in the Suns win, while shooting 4-for-8 from 3-point range.
The Suns forward is having a career season, averaging 21.2 points per game, nearly three points more than his previous career-high with the Grizzlies. Brooks is also averaging more than seven points more than he did last year with the Rockets.
He is shooting 35.6% from deep this season, right around his career average, but has a career-high 45.6% field goal percentage this year.
In addition to his frustration with the technical fouls on Sunday night and this season, Brooks said the refs need to examine the hand rule.
“It’s like the hand rule where they hit your hand on the shots. I don’t get what meets the criteria to what doesn’t,” Brooks said. “Because, shoot, they made the rule because I used to do that, and Steve Kerr cried about it all day, and that’s why they made the rule.”
Brooks said the NBA needs to look at the rule during the All-Star break and determine what’s a foul and what isn’t so there’s a better understanding in the second half of the season and in the playoffs.
Brooks added that way the players know how physical they can play and that the players should be dictating the game, rather than the referees.
The Suns have won three straight games, are 24-15 and sit sixth in the Western Conference. Brooks is second on the team in minutes played and points per game and leads the Suns in personal fouls per game. Phoenix begins a six-game road trip on Tuesday against the Miami Heat.
