Dillon Brooks put on an MVP show on Thursday night, then brought some cold-blooded beef on the court, which was absolutely unexpected.
The villain dropped a career-high 40 points against the East-leading Detroit Pistons. But before the game ended, he made things spicy with Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff on the sideline.
Just to recap, the two share history from Memphis when Bickerstaff coached Brooks during his rookie years with the Grizzlies. That past connection made the trash talk feel very real when Brook got animated while jawing at his former coach.
Dillon Brooks Lets Pistons Coach JB Bickerstaff Have It After Dropping 40
Brooks went nuclear on “Dillon The Villain” t-shirt night at the Footprint Center. The timing couldn’t have been better for the Phoenix Suns after they handed out the villain-themed shirts to the first 5,000 fans. The 30-year-old made sure everyone got their money’s worth.
He finished 13-of-22 from the field with eight rebounds and four assists, dropping four triples and basically cooking every defender Bickerstaff sent against him. His previous career-high was 37 points. He shattered that mark against the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference.
The Suns demolished Detroit 114-96 without Devin Booker for the third straight game. Brooks answered the bell and scored eight straight points late in the third quarter to push the lead to 93-81. Booker made sure that the Suns’ home crowd didn’t feel the absence of Booker throughout the game.
“Yall overrated piece of sh*t team. We beating yall and yall supposed to be ECF champs.”
— Dillon Brooks to JB 😳pic.twitter.com/5MKJSoUjtW
— Hoop Quotes (@QuoteForum) January 30, 2026
At one point in the game, video captured Brooks getting head-to-head with Bickerstaff during a break in play. “You’re an overrated piece of shit team,” he allegedly said, according to social media lip readers. “We beating y’all and y’all supposed to be ECF champs.”
Bickerstaff helped develop Brooks into a rotation player, spending significant time to build the Canadian star’s game. But that relationship clearly didn’t stop Brooks from going full villain mode Thursday night.
The Pistons had won six of seven before getting defeated in Phoenix. Cade Cunningham scored 26 points while Jaren Duren added 23 points and 13 rebounds. Tobias Harris also put up 13, but all looked lame in front of Brook’s career high.
He overshadowed everything in Phoenix to improve their record to 29-19. And his cold trash talk with the former coach added enough spice to the Thursday night showdown.
