Dillon Brooks is officially back to poking the bear.
Brooks and the Phoenix Suns faced off on Monday against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Calif. Just before halftime of the contest, Brooks got out in transition and threw down a two-handed dunk by a trailing James.
As Brooks came down from the rim, he proceeded to taunt James. He looked right at the four-time NBA champion and did an exaggerated version of James’ famous shoulder shrug move.
Here is the video.
DILLON THE VILLAIN pic.twitter.com/yneR4ME0Lg
— Cage (@ridiculouscage) December 2, 2025
James normally does that move with his shoulders after scoring a basket, particularly after an and-1 opportunity. It has become so widely associated with James that even a ref jokingly hit the move during a Lakers game last season.
The dunk gave Brooks 23 points on the game as the Suns took a surprising 66-52 lead over the Lakers into halftime. Brooks has a lot of history with James and most notably had his trash talk for The King completely backfire during a head-to-head playoff series in 2023. But Brooks has still continued to taunt James during matchups in subsequent years, and that continued on Monday with Brooks pulling the Uno reverse card on James’ shoulder shrug move.
