Klay Thompson has heard enough from Grizzlies small forward Dillon Brooks.
Near the end of the Warriors’ 133-119 loss to Memphis on Saturday, Thompson started counting to four on his fingers — the number of NBA titles he has won — in the direction of Brooks, who The Commercial Appeal reported was shouting, “You suck,” from the Grizzlies bench.
Then, postgame, Thompson blasted the sixth-year guard in an interview with The Commercial Appeal.
“When he retires, I don’t think anyone will ever talk about Dillon Brooks ever again,” Thompson told The Commercial Appeal. “I promise you. It’s sweet right now, but wait 10 years.”
Curry, who was guarded by Brooks and managed his fewest points in a game since Jan. 13, told reporters that “we played the whole Memphis Grizzlies, not just him.”
Brooks scored 18 points and added three assists in 29 minutes, and he said in a press conference that Thompson’s counting to four was “motivation to us.”
“We want a ring as well,” Brooks said. “But we needed to go through the process of steps that we did last year, and keep going and learning from it all. It’s friendly trash talk, but I just hold a lot of real estate over there in San Francisco.”
He told a television reporter in a postgame interview, “it’s easy to get ready” for a game against the Warriors because of Thompson and Draymond Green “talking” — adding that he was ready despite only getting four hours of sleep the night before.
The back-and-forth between Thompson and Brooks emerged as the latest stage in an ongoing debate between the Warriors, Grizzlies and whether their matchups can be considered a rivalry.
Curry, when asked on March 14, replied with, “I don’t want to be short, but … no,” according to NBC Sports.
Additionally, when the pair of teams played in the 2022 Western Conference semifinals, Brooks was ejected in Game 2 for a flagrant foul that led to Gary Payton II suffering a fracture in his left elbow.
The Warriors and Grizzlies split their four regular-season meetings, and they could meet again in the postseason depending on how the Western Conference standings finish — with the Grizzlies currently holding onto the No. 3, while the Warriors are in seventh and might need the play-in tournament.