Dillon Brooks Announces Plan to Pursue NBA Job After Retirement

In February, Dillon Brooks became the first player suspended under the NBA's 16-technical-foul rule this season, after picking up his 16th technical in a loss to Oklahoma City. Eight months later, the league's most penalized player has a post-career plan involving the people who keep whistling at him: he wants to become one of them.

In a clip shared by the NBPA, Brooks was asked what he would do after retiring. "I'll probably be a referee for sure," he said. "Calling no fouls and I'm hand out hella T's." It was clearly tongue-in-cheek, but it landed because he's been on the receiving end so often.

The numbers back up the joke. The 30-year-old was suspended for one game without pay in February for that 16th technical, which the league's rules make automatic, and he sat out the Suns' game at San Antonio on Feb. 19. He did it while posting a career-high 21.2 points per game in his first season in Phoenix, when the Suns were a surprising 32-23.

The league also fined him $35,000 in November for confronting officials and using inappropriate language, and $25,000 for a lewd gesture on the court.

Brooks has never hidden his view of NBA officiating. After the Suns' Game 2 loss to the Thunder in April, when he fouled out with 30 points, he said officials should be made to explain themselves, adding that the league had gotten "ridiculous" with whistles going one way.

He argued that playoff basketball had gone soft and criticized how much the game rewards flopping.

Last spring, he said he is an unpopular fan of veteran official Tony Brothers, who is retiring and has talked about running for mayor of Norfolk, Virginia. Brooks explained that he likes Brothers because he does not make calls based on emotion. He said many of the younger officials do, which he does not respect.

That reflects how Brooks thinks about the game. He wants contact tolerated and fewer foul calls, and he wants officials who stay calm and do not respond to a player's reaction. His whole identity has been built on testing that standard, from Memphis to Houston to Phoenix, and he has admitted it comes with a cost.

He has described his villain persona as a tool he can pick up when he needs it, not something that defines him.

This preseason has already shown how much of a change in officiating is on his mind. After picking up five fouls in 23 minutes against the Bulls, he criticized the league's new points of emphasis, saying they were "trying to reinvent the wheel."

For now, the joke is just that. Dillon Brooks still has years left in the league, and the officials he claims he would one day join are still deciding how many technicals he gets this season.

But if he ever does take over the whistle, he has already told everyone exactly what to expect: very few fouls, and plenty of technicals.