Dillon Brooks is the troublemaker-in-chief in the Canada team, using all his dark arts of defending to needle, harass and bully opponents into submission.

On Sunday, however, it was his opponents who had the last laugh.

Only a few days prior, Brooks had performed his role as the pantomime villain to perfection in Wednesday’s quarter-final win over Slovenia in Manila, pushing Luka Doncic so far to the limit that the Dallas Mavericks superstar snapped and got himself ejected in the fourth quarter.

But small forward Brooks, who in July swapped the Memphis Grizzlies for the Houston Rockets, did more than just get under opponents’ skin.

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The 27-year-old scored 22 points in Canada’s second-round win over defending champions Spain, with teammate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander calling his performance “one for the books”.

Celebrating that performance and his team’s victory, cameras caught Brooks shadow boxing in the arena tunnel as he waited for his teammates to join him.

On Sunday, however, Canada was eliminated from the World Cup after a 95-86 loss to Serbia and Nikola Jovic knew exactly how to celebrate the win as he walked up the arena tunnel.

Brooks finished the second-highest scorer on the night for Canada with 16 points, trailing teammate RJ Barrett who had 23.

Oklahoma City superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, meanwhile, was held to just 15 to go with nine assists.

Gilgeous-Alexander was full of praise for Brooks before Sunday’s game, describing him as a “guy you always want on your team”.

“He’s a leader, he does the right things on the basketball floor, he plays with the right energy,” said Gilgeous-Alexander.

Brooks embellished his notoriety last season in the NBA when he clashed with Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James.

Brooks called James “old” after the Grizzlies beat the Lakers in the second game of their playoff series, then got himself ejected in the next game after hitting the 38-year-old with a low blow.

Brooks was up to his old tricks against Slovenia, getting physical with Doncic and having a word in his ear whenever possible.

The Manila fans cheered Doncic’s every touch and booed Brooks, who responded by blowing a kiss to the crowd after nailing an early three-pointer.

Canada head coach Jordi Fernandez said Brooks “had to be better” after getting himself ejected shortly before Doncic, but he could not fault his player for effort.

“I think today was a defensive clinic of leading with his chest, showing his hands, pressuring full-court,” said Fernandez.

“And if you don’t think that way, then you don’t like basketball.”

Even Doncic had to give Brooks begrudging credit, saying he played with physicality “like he always does”.

“A lot of people don’t like him but I respect him for what he does, and he does that stuff pretty good,” said Doncic.