55-year-old Shannon Sharpe claims he can easily replace Dillon Brooks in NBA

Dillon Brooks smacked LeBron James in the face and pushed Jarred Vanderbilt during the LA Lakers matchup.

55-year-old Shannon Sharpe claims he can easily replace Dillon Brooks in NBA

Shannon Sharpe calls out Dillon Brooks for his dirty plays during game against the Lakers (image via Open Source, X)

Dillon Brooks stole the show last night. The Houston Rockets defensive stalwart made the headlines during the game for his tough plays on certain Los Angeles Lakers players. His actions were such that even the great LeBron James avoided answering any questions pertaining to Brooks. The Lakers were on the receiving end of a horrible beatdown at the hands of Brooks and the Houston Rockets. One analyst had an interesting take on the topic of Brooks.

NFL Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst Shannon Sharpe started off the discussion regarding Brooks on First Take. While speaking about the dirty plays Brooks used to rattle the Lakers, Sharpe said;

I believe you can play hard without playing dirty. Just let me come in at 55 years of age and I can do exactly what Dillon Brooks do.
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Sharpe alluded that Brooks could have played the game without trying to cause harm to anyone. He mentioned that Brooks pushing Jarred Vanderbilt in the back while he was in the air could have ended badly for Vanderbilt. Sharpe chastised Brooks’ hit on James.

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Shannon Sharpe continued to say that Brooks can avoid using cheap shots to implement his toughness on the court. Dillon Brooks is known for playing tough and using mind games. But to use cheap shots that could cause harm was unnecessary. Dillon Brooks could have just used his toughness to win the mind games against the Lakers. He added that dirty plays are not what basketball is all about.

Sharpe added that Brooks’ antics were anyways unnecessary as the Lakers played badly throughout the game. To this Kendrick Perkins, a guest on the show added that Brooks’ toughness had a massive impact on the way the Lakers played. According to him, had Brooks not used his toughness, the Lakers could have regrouped in the second half and come back to win the game.

How Dillon Brooks inflicted pain for the Lakers

Dillon Brooks has a long-standing beef with LeBron James. Brooks started the whole beef during last season’s first-round playoff loss to the Lakers. Brooks went into the series on a mission to harass and stop LeBron James from having any impact on the games. But the antics turned on Brooks’ head with James leading the Lakers to a blowout win to close the series.

Shannon Sharpe claims he at 55 years old could do the dirty plays like Brooks
Shannon Sharpe claims he at 55 years old could do the dirty plays like Brooks (image via Twitter)

This season with the Rockets, Brooks still has his sights on James. Earlier Brooks used to use stare-downs and elite defense to harass James. In this game, Brooks took his antics a bit further. He pushed Jarred Vanderbilt in the back when Vanderbilt was in the air going for a dunk. Vanderbilt landed badly and was in pain. Then when James went up for a rebound, Brooks smacked him in the face leading to a Flagrant 1 foul. All those antics led to an embarrassing loss for the Lakers.

It wouldn’t be biased to say that Brooks and his antics had an impact on the game. But Shannon Sharpe says, the Rockets need not pay him NBA contract money to do the same dirty plays Brooks does.

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