The NBA’s defending champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, sent the Phoenix Suns home in the first round of the playoffs as they completed the 4-0 sweep in Phoenix last night.
Subsequently, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took to social media and posted a direct shot at his key defensive matchup from this series, Dillon Brooks, who is also his national teammate for Canada.
He posted an edited image of a moment between him and Dillon Brooks from Game 2 that said “Cancun on 3” behind Brooks’ jersey, a common joke across the league on what a team does after exiting the playoffs.
“Everybody wants to be villainous until the brooms come out and the dust settles, and you realize who the villain is,” wrote Gilgeous-Alexander in the caption. Dillon Brooks saw this and commented under his post on Instagram.
“Sounds like a ghost writer- The Villain,” wrote Brooks as though he were calling him out for the captions he writes. Despite claiming that all is love between the two, some friendly banter was justified between the two Canadian players.
Gilgeous-Alexander uses some extra creativity when it comes to the captions of his Instagram posts. Brooks was hilariously pointing out that it seems Gilgeous-Alexander did not think of this one himself and asked for help from elsewhere, like a ghost writer.
The most noteworthy picture that he used was from an intense moment between Gilgeous-Alexander and Brooks during Game 2 when the national teammates went at each other.
While the 2024-25 MVP is trolling Brooks’ reputation of being ‘the Villain’ while his team got swept, this is not a hostile gesture in any way. However, while all is fun and love between the two players off the court, they become fierce competitors when they’re between the four lines.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 33.8 points, 8.0 assists, and 3.8 rebounds while shooting 55.1% from the field and 31.3% from beyond the three-point line in the four games played in this series.
Meanwhile, Dillon Brooks averaged 26.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.8 assists while shooting 45.9% from the field and 43.8% from the three-point line. Clearly, both players left it all on the court against each other.
From menacing on-court behavior to snarky postgame shots at the Thunder, Brooks tried everything he could to keep up with his reputation of being the villain. But this could be the moment that Gilgeous-Alexander snatches that title from him.
The Thunder are now set to face the winner of the series between the Lakers and the Rockets in the second round. Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder are likely busy in preparation for that while Brooks plans his vacation.
If the Thunder manage to win back-to-back championships, at least it will be the saving grace for the Suns to say they got swept by the defending champions. But clearly, when it comes to the matchup on the court, Gilgeous-Alexander got the last laugh over Dillon Brooks.
