Wednesday night, the Memphis Grizzlies will be squaring off against the Houston Rockets in what will serve as the second of four "revenge" games for former wing Dillon Brooks.
Sign-and-traded to Space City this past summer, since his departure there has been quite a bit of attention drawn to the rather tumultuous breakup between the two parties, with the 27-year-old being regularly vocal about his feelings on what transpired and the current state of the franchise.
As expected, Brooks' comments and post-departure antics have received a considerable amount of backlash and unkind reactions from Grizzlies nation, with big man Xavier Tillman even going as far as to say that his former teammate is "player hating."
Most recently, during the dwindling hours leading up to the second matchup of the 2023-24 campaign between Memphis and Houston, sophomore and former understudy for the wing, David Roddy discussed with Grind City Media why exactly his ex-cohort has such a polarizing love/ hate reputation.
Grizzlies' David Roddy dishes on Dillon Brooks' love/ hate reputation
"A lot of people either love him or hate him and there's a reason for that. He works his tail off every single day, every single night. He studies these guys, studies films, studies players' tendencies. [He] knows people's plays from years back and for him to just accept his role and be an anchor for our defense and be an anchor for Houston as well now, man, I'm just happy for him and I'm excited to compete against him."David Roddy on Dillon Brooks
"Whatever the team needs in me on any given day, I'm willing to do."@droddy22 talks with @mymikecheck during shootaround ahead of tonight's game. pic.twitter.com/sCzHiYQ4lW
— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) December 13, 2023
As things currently stand, the Rockets lead this particular season series 1-0 after pulling out a 111-91 win back on November 19 and are ahead of the Grizzlies in the Western Conference standings by four seeds and five wins (11-9 record compared to 6-16).
Following Wednesday's bout, the two squads will immediately find themselves going head to head once again in front of what is presumed to be a raucous crowd at FedEx Forum on Friday evening, which will mark Brooks' first return to the 08103 since departing this past July.