Sunday morning NBA Shams Charania of ESPN reported that NBA superstar Kevin Durant has been traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Jalen Green, the No. 10 pick in the 2025 draft, five second-round picks and former PAC-12 Player of the Year at Oregon Dillon Brooks.
Brooks led the 2017 Ducks to a 33-6 record and the Elite Eight of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Along with Jordan Bell, Chris Boucher, Tyler Dorsey and freshman Payton Pritchard, they comprised one of the best teams Dana Altman has hand at Oregon, a squad that won the PAC-12 regular season championship and swept Washington, Arizona, and Utah to win the conference tournament.
BREAKING: The Phoenix Suns are trading two-time NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 pick in the 2025 draft and five second-round picks, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/EwrbA2ES9O
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 22, 2025
Brooks earned PAC-12 Player of the Year honors and Consensus 2nd Team All-American, scoring 16.1 points a game and grabbing 3.2 rebounds, the first sophomore to score 1,000 career points for the Ducks.
Even then, however, he had a reputation as a fiery, combative player who drew opposing fans' ire.
Born in Ontario, Canada and emerging as a top prospect at Father Henry Carr High School in Toronto, Brooks was drafted No. 45 in the second round by Houston and immediately traded to Memphis.
With the Grizzlies he proved himself to be a reliable scorer and tenacious defender, putting up a career-high 25.8 points a game in the playoffs in 2021.
He also took a heel turn for his combative play, notable confrontations with Klay Thompson, Lebron James, ejected after a shoving match with Durant in March of 2025, drawing his 14th and 15th technical of the year.
The 6-6 shooting guard seems to relish the Heel/villain role. After an ejection in 2023 for punching Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell in the groin he said, "It's just pillow talk to me. Next time we play it's going to be the same thing. And he knows. I'm clearly in his mind, even to this day. And that's all I want: a little real estate in his head."
In 2023 he rolled up $360,000 in fines, which included two suspensions for amassing 18 technical fouls
Brooks likes to anger people with hard defense and trash talk. During an April 2023 playoff series with the Los Angeles Lakers he targeted Lebron James, “I don’t care. He’s old. … I poke bears. I don’t respect someone until he gives me 40," Brooks said.
Dillon Brooks ALL OVER LeBron man 😭
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) April 1, 2025
(via @ladeig) pic.twitter.com/mvbmSlr2uh
Keith Parish of the NBA podcast "Fastbreak Breakfast" told Corbin Smith of the Rolling Stone,
“Generally, I’m a fan. I enjoy it."
"I find it very entertaining. Although I do feel like it has taken a turn, in recent weeks and months, into more of the wrestling heel territory… I don’t know if it’s right, but I do wish that maybe he wouldn’t straight-up antagonize players who are much better than him.”
Now on his third team and entering his ninth year in the league, it will be fascinating to see if Brooks continues to lean in to that bad-boy reputation or focuses more on scoring, rebounding and defense as he begins his stint with the Suns.