Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks is, by almost any measure, a good NBA basketball player. He’s averaging 20.3 points per game for a playoff team while playing some of the best defense in the league.
And yet when Brooks’ name gets brought up in discussions among basketball fans, it’s rarely about how talented the 30-year-old former Oregon Ducks is.
Instead, it’s often about Brooks’ antics.
See, while Brooks is unquestionably among the league’s better players. He’s also easily among the league’s best trash talkers. He’s found a way to get under the skin of the league’s best players, whether it’s LeBron James, Steph Curry, or Luka Doncic.
If you’re on the court with Dillon Brooks, he’s going to make sure you know about it. But according to Brooks, he’s not to blame for the way he acts!
Dillon Brooks Learned How To Trash Talk By Getting Trash Talked Himself
Brooks recently wrote a piece for The Players’ Tribune that gave insight into the people and places that have made him into the person he is today.
Among the stories he told was one that gave a key look into why Brooks is such a pest every time he walks out onto the court.
“I didn’t just come up with all this on my own. I learned from a master. One of my boys at the Y was one of the most sinister trash talkers I’ve ever met,” Brooks wrote. “Dude was devious. Real subtle, too. He’d be preying on your deepest insecurities. I remember when I first started to get some shine, I was playing AAU and I had some colleges looking at me, right? So we’d be playing pickup, and I’d miss a shot, and he’d be just squinting at me…”
Like…
“D1, huh?”
I’d miss another shot.
He’s shaking his head….
“Oregon? Man, I don’t see it.”
Brooks went on to explain how the trash talk got so bad that he kicked the basketball up into the stands, and he still thinks about the moment today.
So next time your favorite NBA team is playing against Brooks, and he won’t stop pestering your favorite player, just remember that you have his childhood friend to blame.