“I got under his skin a couple times. And he got the best of me a couple times,” Dillon Brooks said of Devin Booker.
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PHOENIX — For years, in various arenas around the NBA, they were foes. Dillon Brooks antagonizing, Devin Booker feigning indifference. Brooks, an in-your-face wing with Memphis and later Houston, was the wild one. Booker, the silky shooting perennial All-Star with Phoenix, the calm one.
When they would meet on the court, Booker said Brooks was always the “naggy” or “annoying” opponent.
“I would always talk s—,” Brooks said. “And he would always be the composed guy. He would never want to say it, but I got under his skin a couple times. And he got the best of me a couple times.”
So when the Suns made a blockbuster trade with Houston in July, which in part shipped out Kevin Durant and brought in Brooks, the former foes were united. It was a curious experiment to see if the calm waters of Booker and the volatile oil that can be Brooks would mix.
More than halfway through the first season together, Booker and Brooks have authored one of the surprise stories in the NBA on the court — leading the Suns into the thick of the Western Conference playoff hunt — while becoming one of the unexpected stories off the court.
The Odd Couple have not only blended on the court; they’ve become friends off it.
“I’ve always made it a point to develop relationships, and sometimes it might just be when you see each other at the gym. But that’s not the case with us,” Booker said. “We hang out outside of the court, outside of practice.”
Their relationship started the day of the trade, when Brooks phoned Booker. The bond grew in August during a teamwide retreat to Booker’s summer home in Flagstaff, which included talks late into the night in front of a fire pit. Their connection was then cemented in the preseason, over a probing conversation while playing blackjack in a China casino. And ultimately, the two knew they had found the perfect teammate when they were together in a gym training for the upcoming season.
“Watching him work, the way that he works, is second to none that I’ve seen in this league,” Booker said.
Today, after a surging first half of the season, times are trying for the Suns (34-26). Brooks broke his left hand Feb. 21, and Booker is sidelined with a hip injury. But the anguish is nothing like what the organization endured the past two seasons, when a roster loaded with star power never seemed to fit, align or reach its potential.
And perhaps that’s what makes this Odd Couple pairing so rewarding. The foundation for success in Phoenix is secured, and it is not rooted in status, salary or seniority. It’s based in work ethic, respect and cooperation.
“Ultimately, when you have two leaders who are working together, it gains everyone else’s confidence,” Brooks said. “You don’t have two alphas banging heads or trying to figure out how to coincide. We have that down pat now.”
And it started with a phone call.
Brooks was in Toronto (he grew up in nearby Mississauga) when he learned he had been traded to Phoenix. He immediately went to his phone.
“First call I made was to Book,” Brooks said.
Booker was in his offseason home in Flagstaff, Ariz. and when he picked up Brooks’ call, he was still processing the move.
“All the speculations of the trade … Dillon’s name was never brought up,” Booker said. “So, you know, (Brooks) was never a thought in my mind until the day it happened.”
Brooks saw immediate potential. Ever since the second-seeded Rockets had been eliminated in the first round by Golden State last spring, he had been working on his offensive game, and he envisioned being a nice complement to Booker.
“We both thought we could be good,” Brooks said, “that we could be a sleeper team.”
Booker chuckles while recalling their first phone conversation. All those images he had of Brooks as an opponent — cussing, bumping, pinching, trash talking — didn’t fit what he was hearing on the other end. First, there was Brooks’ Canadian accent — “they have this little twang, a different, different accent,” Booker said — and then there was his delivery.
“It doesn’t catch me off-guard anymore, where you know, you see somebody on the court and they act as a totally different person … so him being a naggy person, the annoying person to play against, then you meet him, and he’s soft-spoken and humble,” Booker said. “And to me, those are the types of guys who want to go to war with, the guys who can turn it on.”
Brooks said he told Booker their contrasting personalities could be a benefit.
“I always thought the 1-2 punch would be good in the NBA,” Brooks said. “With his composure, his knowledge for the game, and my passion and my charisma for the game … it’s a good balance for a team. I told him I thought there could be two different types of leaders — the one who leads by example, pulls guys to the side and talks to them, and the leader who yells, screams, freaking bitches and complains …”
The duo immediately saw the potential in their union. “We both thought we could be good, that we could be a sleeper team,” Brooks said.
Booker, who is renowned throughout the Phoenix organization for his work ethic and attention to detail, liked what he was hearing about Brooks’ offseason workouts and his fervor for getting better. He could sense the Suns were getting a hungry and passionate player with a lot to prove. He let Brooks know that was the spirit for which he was hoping.
“He was excited,” said Brooks, 30. “Those last two years were pretty dog years, so I guess to have a fresh player who was going to come in and work his ass off … he was impressed by that.”
On the spot, Booker invited Brooks to join him to work out in early July, when Booker makes his annual trip to the forests of Northern Michigan, where he spent part of his childhood.
“He said he was unable to make it,” Booker said. “Understood.”
Booker’s next invitation would not go unfulfilled.
To escape the scorching Phoenix summers, Booker three years ago bought a home in Flagstaff, which is about three hours north of Phoenix.
“It’s my getaway spot,” said Booker, 29. “I wanted to beat the heat, and it’s just beautiful land.”
In August, he invited the Suns roster to a team-building retreat amid the Ponderosa pines and pristine golf courses that are tucked in the valleys of the town that sits at 7,000-foot elevation.
Over the course of three days, there would be five-on-five pickup games at Northern Arizona University, golfing excursions and gatherings around Booker’s fire pit while playing Mafia, a card game made for large groups.
“It was special,” Suns guard Collin Gillespie said. “Great bonds, great relationships were formed. That’s Book being a leader, welcoming all the new guys. It was really important and crucial for the development of our team at that point.”
Most of the team stayed in four-person villas that were on a nearby golf course resort. Brooks was one of the few who stayed at Booker’s home.
Booker was everywhere that weekend. He brought his 10-handicap to the golf course, where he squared off against Gillespie (6-handicap), Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale. He played in the five-on-five games and took note of how youngsters Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro led the Mafia games.
“We must have had 14, 15 guys around the fire playing Mafia … and it was fun, because one conversation leads to another,” Booker said. “It was a nice setup.”
It was also a perfect setting for Booker and Brooks to learn more about each other.
“I think (in Flagstaff) we found we are on the same page,” Booker said. “We talked about how we have a lot of kids around us and how it changed quickly from us being the young guys to now our voice is gonna hold weight. So we talked about how we gotta make sure everyone’s on the same page. And that’s how we came into the season … and it’s been like that ever since.”
Gillespie and others on the team couldn’t help but note the developing bond between their two stars.
“Both had great respect for each other after playing so many years in the league, so that’s part of it,” Gillespie said. “But I mean, they’ve gotten close. They have a really good relationship.”
Before Flagstaff, Booker knew that Brooks had the work ethic and the passion to get better. After Flagstaff, he saw he was a good teammate, a person others enjoyed being around. But Booker still had one test he had yet to give to Brooks.
Two months later, while in China for two preseason games, Booker would administer that test. He calls it the Background Check.
In July, when the smoke had cleared from the blockbuster trade, new Phoenix general manager Brian Gregory arranged to meet Brooks in Toronto for a workout.
Gregory left with his jaw agape.
“Non-stop,” he said in describing Brooks’ workout. “Three hours. Going hard. Dripping sweat.”
Gregory already knew the scouting report on Booker: the ultimate worker. He didn’t know yet whether Booker and Brooks would mesh personally. But if Gregory had any questions about whether Booker and Brooks would connect professionally, they were drowned right there as he stood next to a puddle of Brooks’ sweat.
“I knew right then, there would be no issue,” Gregory said. “None.”
In the buildup to September’s training camp, Booker said he did what he has been doing for the last 11 seasons in Phoenix: Be the first one at the gym.
“I got to the gym early,” Booker said. “And he was already in a full sweat.”
Booker was thrilled.
“He works for hours,” Booker said. “Even myself, I’ll do like 30-45 minutes hard on the court. He’ll do an hour and a half, hard, training. I haven’t seen that much in the league … at all.”
Every conversation, every meeting, every observation Booker made with Brooks, he became more impressed. So when the team went across the world in October to play two preseason games in China, Booker knew it was time to see if Brooks could pass his ultimate test.
Hanging out during a preseason trip to China is “when I feel like (Booker) and I really got to know each other,” Dillon Brooks said.
When Booker gets a new acquaintance or a new teammate he might want to get close to, he does research. Family background. Educational history. Cultural and environmental influences.
“I usually do a background dig, you know, just to see how they grew up, who was around, who inspired them,” Booker said. “You know, the stuff that really matters. During the course of a season, a lot of people don’t realize the moving parts around you. And you can tell a lot about the people that are around you.”
One night in Macao, the two were playing blackjack at a casino, and Booker started with the questions. And with each answer came more questions: Who are your mentors? Who and what inspires your dreams?
Brooks was impressed. Booker had the same curiosity that Brooks has about people and their makeup.
“It’s when I feel like he and I really got to know each other,” Brooks said. “He’s kind of like me — he wants to learn. So we were going back and forth.”
The questions went beyond the surface and cut to the core of who each of them is.
“When I saw him trying to find out things about me, things to understand me … that’s where you get the trust,” Brooks said.
They talked about families. Basketball. Defining moments. Low points. Who they lean on. And apparently, Booker found out some pretty amusing facts about Brooks.
“I’m curious to see if he will tell you the things he found out that are pretty funny,” Brooks said.
Said Booker: “I can’t reveal that. I’m surprised he even brought that up. I’ll just say everything about him checks out. And everybody on his side seems humble, driven … you know, exact replica of who he is.”
At the blackjack table, their relationship had gone from respect to reverence, from teammates to brothers.
With a new comfort level, they returned to the game.
“They have some different rules over there that we had never seen,” Booker said. “It was something like you could bet that the same number that comes out (on a deal) will come out again, at like 10-to-1 odds.”
Because Brooks hails from the Toronto area — which the rapper Drake has romanticized as “The 6″ in reference to its 416 area code — any time the dealer would reveal a 6, Booker would make sure Brooks had a bet down, sometimes giving him chips if he was low.
“The 6 hit like four times,” Booker said. “Oh man, we were going crazy. We didn’t win on the night, but we had fun doing it.”
As the Suns’ starting lineup was introduced last Sunday, and the crowd went wild, Booker was away from all the pomp and circumstance, in a quiet hallway. Since the All-Star break, he has played nine minutes, a right hip strain sidelining him, though the Suns don’t believe it’s serious.
The crowd was still buzzing when Brooks, in a freshly applied cast to his left hand, emerged from the locker room and gave Booker a playful up-and-down look in the hallway. Hours earlier, the U.S. men’s hockey team had beaten Canada for the gold medal at the Winter Olympics. Booker, who has won two Olympic gold medals, was dressed in an all-white sweatsuit with a Team USA baseball cap.
“He’s mocking me!” Brooks shouted as he passed.
“How am I mocking you?” Booker said.
“The red, white and blue?” Brooks said over his shoulder.
“You guys almost got it … just missing the blue!” Booker responded through a smile.
Inside the arena, the Suns’ season was limping on without them. But there in the back hallway, two stars could joke with each other, confident that better days are ahead. They are injured but not broken. They are out of the lineup, but remain united. And they are not just teammates, but friends.
“So much of the success in this league, basketball-wise, has very little to do with basketball,” Gregory said. “So for 82 games a year, through the grind of the season, the back-to-backs, players in and out with injuries … having those two guys constantly on the same page, and being able to challenge each other, push each other, and count on each other … it’s critical. If you don’t have that, you have no chance. It can’t be overstated how important that is.”
Brooks is averaging a career-best 20.9 points a game, a fact he partly attributes to Booker’s trust and acceptance.
“I think he saw every day that I had worked on my craft, and he was impressed by that,” Brooks said. “And so ultimately, he trusts me with the ball and allowed me to do what I’m doing now.”
Booker is averaging 24.7 points and 6.1 assists, and says he has a newfound joy for the game because of the camaraderie of this group, and his bond with Brooks.
“I see some similarities to the success of our (2021 NBA) Finals run team, where we spend a lot of time outside of (practice and games),” Booker said. “Even in our downtime, we are wanting to spend that together.”
So while a season is stalled, a bond continues to strengthen in a way so obvious that Suns players and management have taken notice.
“I think friendship grows,” Gregory said. “It’s early with them, but all relationships are based on trust and respect, and they have that with each other.”
Gillespie says every flight on the team plane features Booker and Brooks playing cards. Booker says he and Brooks are usually playing Booray.
“Yeah, it’s about winning some money sometimes,” Booker said. “But it’s also the camaraderie around it. We don’t sleep on flights, we play the whole flight, and then when we land, it’s like, ‘Whose room we in?’
“But you don’t talk cards the whole time. You talk about what’s going on in your lives.”
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Jason Quick is a senior writer for The Athletic. Based in Portland, he writes about personalties and trends of the NBA, with a focus on human connections. He has been named Oregon sportswriter of the year four times and has won awards from APSE, SPJ, and Pro Basketball Writers Association. Follow Jason on Twitter @jwquick