Warriors' Klay Thompson trolls Grizzlies' Dillon Brooks, adds fuel to growing rivalry

Gilbert McGregor

Warriors' Klay Thompson trolls Grizzlies' Dillon Brooks, adds fuel to growing rivalry image

There's absolutely no love lost between the Grizzlies and Warriors.

The rivalry, which has intensified since the two teams met in the 2022 NBA Playoffs, has carried over into the 2022-23 season with plenty of trash talk. Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks has been involved in just about all of it.

Earlier in the month, Brooks was engaged in a back-and-forth with Draymond Green, who took to his podcast to clap back. During the fourth and final meeting of the season between the two teams, Brooks' latest spat came with Warriors guard Klay Thompson.

MORE: Draymond Green rips Dillon Brooks on his podcast | Dillon Brooks responds to Draymond Green's podcast rant

The latest chapter of the rivalry came in the final moments of Memphis' 14-point win over Golden State, as Thompson was spotted counting to four while looking at Brooks, providing a reminder of how many championships he and the Warriors have won.

As for what triggered the back-and-forth, Damichael Cole of The Commercial Appeal said that Brooks directed the comment "you suck" toward Thompson.

After the game, Brooks addressed the moment, saying "he's got four rings. That's all he was saying. It's motivation to us. We want a ring as well. Being able to go through the process of steps that we did last year, we keep going and learning from it all."

Brooks continued, adding "it's friendly trash talk, but I just hold a lot of real estate over there in San Francisco."

While Brooks called the trash talk "friendly," Thompson wasn't so kind when addressing his counterpart. "I don't care about Dillon Brooks," Thompson said to The Commercial Appeal.

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"When he retires, I don't think anyone will ever talk about Dillon Brooks ever again. I promise you. It's sweet right now, but wait 10 years."

Thompson has made it clear that he isn't a fan of the Grizzlies, going as far as to call Jaren Jackson a "bum" for using Golden State's "strength in numbers" motto during the 2021-22 regular season.

During Golden State's win over Memphis on Christmas Day, Thompson picked up a technical foul for taunting Brooks.

The Grizzlies and Warriors split the season series this year, with each team winning both games on their home floor. As it stands, there's a chance that these two teams meet in the first round of the playoffs, as Basketball-Reference's Playoff Probabilities tool gives Memphis a 45.1 percent chance of finishing third while Golden State has an 18.4 percent chance of finishing sixth.

It's safe to assume that there will be much more of this rivalry to come.

Gilbert McGregor

Gilbert McGregor Photo

Gilbert McGregor first joined The Sporting News in 2018 as a content producer for Global editions of NBA.com. Before covering the game, McGregor played basketball collegiately at Wake Forest, graduating with a Communication degree in 2016. McGregor began covering the NBA during the 2017-18 season and has been on hand for a number of league events.