I’m a big fan of Serge Ibaka’s new-ish “Thumbs Down” celebration after blocking a shot. Doing the finger wag was too blatantly copying Dikembe, and Ibaka is a good enough shoot blocker to be able to use his own gesture. This new gesture is cheeky but not wholly ridiculous.
It’s even better when the opposing crowd boos him after he does it. I don’t want to sound like one of those “it was better in my day” oldsters, but there isn’t enough antagonizing going on in the modern NBA. If I saw Ibaka doing that after blocking Giannis or something, I would probably get really mad for no good reason. That’s a good thing, that’s what sports is all about; meaningless and undirected rage coming from the part of your brain that still thinks everything is some sort of tribal battle for resources.