PHOENIX — Dillon Brooks hinted that it wasn’t someone you would expect, so that actually eliminated Collin Gillespie from the conversation, because you would expect that.
The new teammates on the Phoenix Suns have clicked right away, with Brooks’ “Dillon the Villain” nickname quickly taking life in Phoenix by Brooks teasing there was a “Villain Jr.” in our midst.
Brooks wanted it to remain a mystery for the time being early in camp, so an agreement was made that an official first guess would be made once he and the team returned from China.
The people voted on it, and their guess was Ryan Dunn.
Incorrect.
Brooks on the Suns’ social media pages made the official announcement that it is indeed Gillespie.
Given how Gillespie plays the game, always with a little attitude to him — I mean that in a complimentary way — it’s a perfect fit.
“It started off as a joke, originally,” Gillespie told Arizona Sports. “Some stuff happened in the summertime in our pickup games, and I’m like, ‘Yo, Dillon is crazy.’ And I was like, ‘I could kind of be like that out on the court with him!’
“I said it to him once, I was like, ‘Yo, I’ll be Villain Jr.’ And I was kind of kidding, and then he was being serious about it. I think he said it to you guys (in the media) one time and then it took off from there.”
The “stuff” in the pickup game was Brooks receiving two technical fouls. As a long-time basketball writer, I did not even know practice officials were calling Ts in scrimmage runs.
Gillespie is never going to do anything like that or challenge LeBron James in the way Brooks infamously once did, but he’s got a little bit of that bulldog in him for sure.
The fact that there were a handful of guesses out there about who was Villian Jr. tells you how many young players with an edge the Suns have on their roster, ready to follow in Brooks’ footsteps.
“I liked the way he put it: It’s about not caring what people say about you, going out and playing hard, being hungry every night, competing at a high level,” Gillespie said. “Those are all things that he prides himself on, that I pride myself on. We have a lot of guys that are like that.”
