The walk-by shoulder bump made the smaller coach spin to his left and hold up his arms in shock. But … did Brooks flop?

Denver Coach Mike Malone suggested so. After the game, Malone said he watched the replay about “10 times,” analyzing every single frame like the Zapruder film, before coming to the conclusion about his coaching comrade.

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“Nikola’s walking off the court, Scott Brooks is walking on the court. There’s contact made. It was embellished a little bit, to be honest, I think,” Malone said. “But the referees looked at it and they called a tech.”

Denver blogs went so far as to suggest the league should fine Brooks for flopping.

But to even pose this flopping question, you have to consider Brooks’s background.

Though he’s been coaching for nearly two decades, Scott Brooks the coach has the same D.N.A. as Scott Brooks the player. Back then, “Scotty” was short, slow and stepped over in the NBA draft. Yet, he fought until he latched onto NBA rosters and played as the consummate teammate that superstars tend to love (see: Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon). Dig deep into the dark corners of the Internet and uncover this gem: a fight between Brooks and fellow future head coach Nate McMillan.

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And it was the 5-foot-nothing dude with the bad haircut who started this fracas.

That fire doesn’t just die out because you’ve now moved up to the head seat on the bench. Don’t let the designer eyeglasses fool you: Brooks looks ready to deliver the fade at a moment’s notice. Check out how he turned around before the courtside fan offered the pacifying gesture:

So, the whole flopper label doesn’t quite fly with someone as fiesty as Brooks. With the Jokic bump, I simply think Brooks “sold” the contact. But there’s a big difference between selling and flopping.

Jokic clearly brushed into him, Brooks felt it and — without pretending to know what’s racing through his heart and mind at that moment — he appeared to be so taken aback by the shoulder bump that his reaction reflected it. Yes, Brooks could have pulled an Eric Spoelstra: take the hit and keep moving.

But in that LeBron James-Spoelstra moment, the coach absorbed a shoulder check from his own player. Familiarity is the difference here.

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Brooks doesn’t know Jokic and when an opponent bumps into you, making no attempt to get out of the way or flash a “my bad,” I suspect that Brooks didn’t appreciate it and wanted to make sure the referees knew that.

The officials deemed the act egregious enough to give Jokic a technical foul. On Tuesday afternoon following the Wizards’ practice on the UCLA campus, Brooks was asked directly: flop or no flop?

“I’ve heard about it. A lot of friends are making fun of me. And players. [But] nah, I didn’t flop,” Brooks said. “I think it’s an honor. I’ve never been called that before. As a player, I’ve never been called a flopper. I’ve been called a hack. I’ve hacked a lot of players, but I’ve never flopped. So I think it’s great. It’s fun. But no, no flop. I didn’t flop.”

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I agree with Brooks. He’s no flopper. But I submit: since that play helped ensure his team a crucial late free throw, then Scott Brooks is a master salesman.