The Rockets' Trip to Phoenix Has an Edge: Brooks Says the Durant-Ishbia Beef 'Adds Juice' to Saturday's Game
Kevin Durant's return to Phoenix was already a game. Then the Suns' owner talked about the trade that brought Durant there, Durant answered online, and Dillon Brooks - who came to Phoenix in the trade that sent Durant to Houston - took it personally. Saturday night at 8, the 7-2 Rockets play the 2-5 Suns with all of it hanging over the court.
Saturday's Rockets game in Phoenix comes with a subplot neither team is pretending away. Phoenix forward Dillon Brooks said the online feud between Kevin Durant and Suns owner Mat Ishbia 'for sure' adds juice to the matchup at Mortgage Matchup Center. 'I think there's juice already, because he didn't play the first game back in Phoenix,' Brooks said during the Suns' homestand. 'So, yeah, it's going to be a good game. I love playing (against) my old teams. It brings a certain fire out of me.' Brooks played in Houston before arriving in Phoenix in the trade that sent Durant the other way.
The feud's paper trail is a month of posts. In a CNBC Sport podcast interview last month, Ishbia revisited the blockbuster February 2023 deal in which Phoenix sent Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder and four first-round picks to Brooklyn for Durant. 'I kind of just threw money at the problem,' Ishbia said, adding: 'Bringing in super-talented players like Kevin Durant doesn't necessarily lead to championships.' Durant answered on social media - '#blameKD even though KD stayed on top of his game at 36 and got u back this 'culture' you love so much' - and the reply referenced Brooks' DUI arrest on March 6, which is where Brooks drew his line. 'If you got beef or you want to have a conversation with somebody in particular, don't bring up nobody else,' Brooks said. 'I'm not laying down to nobody saying nothing, especially a player.'
Not everyone in the Phoenix locker room is buying in. Guard Collin Gillespie, Durant's teammate in 2024-25, shrugged it off: 'I don't think it plays into the basketball game, though. I just think it's off-the-court stuff. Obviously, there's history because K used to play here, JG and Dillon used to be there.' Jalen Green, who came to Phoenix in the Durant trade and was limited by injuries last season, kept his answer on the court: 'It's still energy there. Especially, you know, I didn't give my best effort last year in my first time playing them.'
The basketball, for the record: Phoenix is 2-5 and snapped a four-game losing skid by beating Orlando on Thursday; Houston is 7-2, coming off Wednesday's home loss to Minnesota, and swept all four meetings with the Suns last season - including a 119-105 win on April 7 in Durant's first game back in Phoenix since the trade, in which he scored 24. Tipoff Saturday is 8 p.m. Central.
