The NBA needs more Dillon Brooks, even if LeBron James hates the ultimate ‘villain’

Dec 2, 2025 - 14:45

The thick silver chain across Dillon Brooks’ chest said it all.

Brooks had just beaten LeBron James and dropped 33 points on the Los Angeles Lakers, and the new Phoenix Sun wore a sparkling ‘DB’ chain that showed off his initials to the basketball world.

“LeBron likes people who bow down to him. I don’t bow down,” said Brooks, after he carried Phoenix to a 125-108 road victory over the Lakers on a night when the Suns lost franchise face Devin Booker to a first-quarter groin injury.

Why are Brooks and James bitter rivals?

It’s easy to hate on Brooks.

While there’s no way to perfectly measure NBA fan vitriol, Brooks might be the only player in The Association more unliked than Draymond Green — and Green is a four-time world champion who helped build a dynasty with the Golden State Warriors.

Brooks has never made an All-Star team, he’s bounced from Memphis to Houston and Phoenix in recent seasons, and … he’s from Canada.

Dillon Brooks won his rivalry battle with LeBron James

“This man really is a villain,” one fan tweeted.

“Bro won one game against a 40-year-old LeBron and went and put on every chain he got,” a second fan posted.

“He is a self-named bad boy,” a third fan wrote.

But Brooks is also producing career-best numbers (21.5 points, 45.1 percent shooting, 87.1 percent from the free throw line) and the Kevin Durant-less Suns (13-9) have started the 2025-26 campaign as one of the surprise teams of the league.

Brooks took another public shot at The King

“I love playing in this arena. Arena is great,” said Brooks, referring to the Lakers’ home court of crypto.com Arena.

“Great players played in here. Magic (Johnson), Kobe (Bryant), Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), Shaq (O’Neal). Great players have played in here, so just to be a fan of the game, be able to play basketball for nine years and be able to be in that arena playing how I’m playing now means more to me than anything.”

Dillon Brooks was on another level in his battle vs the Lakers — Brooks was on another level vs the Lakers and scored 33 points

He mocked one of James' signature moves — He mocked one of James’ signature moves

Then he celebrated the win in style with a huge necklace

Brooks’ latest troll move appears to have been listing the names of Lakers greats but intentionally omitting James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

The King has 21 more All-Star appearances than Brooks, four more Finals MVPs, and one more selection to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team.

But Brooks made his name by battling James in the 2023 when he was with the Grizzlies, and James watched the Lakers get stomped on Monday while Brooks flexed on The King by pulling out a trademark shrug celebration.

NBA fans love Brooks being petty

” ‘Dillon Brooks Owning Los Angeles,’ never thought I would hear this,” one fan tweeted.

“I hereby vote for Dillon Brooks to be the President of the HOB (Haters of Bron),” a second fan wrote.

“The rivalry lives even in midseason games,” a third fan posted.

LeBron James and Dillon Brooks have become bitter rivals — James and Brooks have become bitter rivals

Ranking the best NBA players in the world

3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder

SGA is a scoring machine, and his talent is matched by his confidence.

After spending years rebuilding and losing, OKC has taken over the NBA with Gilgeous-Alexander leading the charge.

The 68-win Thunder spent last season as the best team in the NBA, while SGA topped Nikola Jokic for MVP.

No one is surprised by SGA anymore, especially not OKC supporters.

He won the Finals, received a $285 million supermax extension, and will be representing the small-market Thunder for years to come.

“What Shai has done is, he has gotten better through every experience,” Thunder sideline reporter Nick Gallo exclusively told talkSPORT.

talkSPORT ranks the best NBA players in the world right now

A few more unique players like Brooks — petty, intense, extremely competitive and proud — would go a long way in the modern NBA, which lacks real rivalries and nightly passion.

Brooks will never enter the Hall of Fame, and he’ll always be hated more than he’s loved as a professional basketball player.

But he beat The King on Monday night in Los Angeles and hilariously trolled James.

“I’m a competitor,” Brooks said. “I don’t really like the smiling and the giggling and all that, so just letting them know that I’m here. And I’m still rising.”

That’s a player worth watching nightly in a league that can be easy to miss during NFL season.

The NBA used to be defined by bitter rivalries, before millionaires became billionaires and superstars formed friendly superteams.

Brooks belongs in the 1980s and ’90s, and he’s perfect being the one player who’ll stand up to and call out an aging James in 2025.

“I don’t care — he’s old. You know what I mean?” Brooks said of James in 2023.

“He wanted to say something when I got my fourth foul. He should have been saying that earlier on. But I poke bears.”

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