Devin Booker - right (Phoenix Suns Photo)
The NBA Finals have become an even more interesting annual event for Kentucky basketball fans. Devin Booker is one of the star players for the Phoenix Suns playing against the Milwaukee Bucks in this year’s championship series that started Tuesday night.
Last year former Cats Anthony Davis and Rajon Rondo helped the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat and former Cats Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro in the Finals. In 2019 Jodie Meeks played for Toronto in the Finals.
Booker’s emergence this year as a national star has made UK fans love him even more. He 25.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game in the regular season. But for UK fans they know this is his fourth straight year averaging at least 24 points per game. Booker is averaging 27 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game in the playoffs and is close to reaching the 10,000-point mark. His current point total is the seventh most for any player before turning 25.
Booker also received the NBA Cares Community Assist Award in May for his commitment to support youth and families throughout the greater Phoenix area. And don’t forget he will be off to play for Team USA in the Olympics once the NBA Finals end.
Before Tuesday’s game, Booker shared several insights I thought you might find interesting that have nothing to do with wins and losses.
Q. Since you’re the elder statesman of this franchise, I use that word — can you give us an idea what the people here think about the Suns and also your chances of winning a championship, the fans?
DEVIN BOOKER: What they think about the Suns? I mean, I think it’s the baby here. It’s the only professional team that has Phoenix in it. Every other team is Arizona. So, Phoenix Suns is the baby franchise here and they love it with a passion. I’m wearing the shirt from ’93 right now. I think it started around that time to when they developed that, you hear people talk about, I remember when I watched Charles [Barkley] and them, like, you hear those stories at all times, and seeing the passion in their eyes when they’re telling the stories and even being at the bottom of the barrel for the past five years and them still showing up and showing love shows that same type of love that they have for this team.
Q. You and Chris Paul have joked in recent days about how when you used to play against each other that you would practically almost fight on the court just because you’re both so competitive. Is there an example or a moment that when you think about that, that comes to mind, like during a game early on in your career, where that competitiveness really came out between the two of you?
DEVIN BOOKER: I used to try to bring him to the post every time he would switch on me. So, while you’re walking down there to the post, he would be, like, I’m not going for that, I’m not going for that today. And we actually went back on an app that you can check every shot that you’ve matched up against somebody last year, and I scored on him a couple times, and he stopped me a couple times, so we just stopped that conversation, that narrative. But we also got into it the first day here when we had our first practice as a team, we were doing a three-on-three drill, and it’s just, it’s kind of the survival of the fittest mindset. I don’t think it’s really about the throw hands, but the closest thing you can do to that without doing it.
Q. I know you spend a lot of time watching games with him as well. Just, what is it like, what do you get by watching maybe another game with Chris that is different than maybe when you’re practicing with him on the floor, you’re on the floor with him? What do you learn from him by just watching a game with him?
DEVIN BOOKER: The attention to detail. And I feel it, too, ever since I got to the NBA. You watch games a different way than you did growing up. You’re not watching it for entertainment anymore. You’re scouting the whole time you’re watching. So, it might be a simple play. Somebody might have scored on this possession over here. You sit back. You rewind it. Hey, look over here, do you see what they did over here? So, it’s just viewing the game a different way, seeing the game a different way, and just understanding tendencies and communicating it out loud when you see it. We’re not sitting there watching the game in silence. We’re sitting there, like, they let him do that again? We have to take that away when we play them. So, it’s just a whole other level of basketball and film study when you’re with Chris.
Q. What’s your perspective on if you think there’s enough of an appreciation for what you guys have done to get to this stage and the growth you’ve shown as opposed to any fans just chalking it up to facing three teams that didn’t have some of their star players in some of the games?
DEVIN BOOKER: I mean, we’re not here to justify what we’re doing to anybody else, for real. I mean, we’ve had had goals for this group and aspirations for this group since day one. We keep those in-home for that reason. We compete against each other and we’re on the constant pursuit to get better every day. Even during the regular season a simple play might go by and we stress it, we stress that this can’t happen. I know it doesn’t matter right now, but later down the line it can come back and get you and we don’t want that to happen. So just the focus for everybody to be locked in from top to bottom, not just the guys that are getting major minutes right now, 1 through 15, 16, with the coaching staff, just locked in at all levels preparing for this opportunity right here.
Q. Have you thought about what ways West Michigan helped shape your passion and your love for the game?
DEVIN BOOKER: That’s where it all started. That’s where it all started. Man, you threw me back thinking about it now. I’m reminiscing in my head right now. But that’s where I fell in love with the game. I fell in love with that Pistons team. They taught me the game of basketball. And just being around everybody in West Michigan. I remember Drake Harris, just looking up to him every day and wanting to be him. But Michigan-Michigan State rivalry game, just all that, all those memories, all the stories, that’s where I learned the fundamentals of the game, honestly. I always say I learned the fundamentals in Michigan, and then when I moved to Mississippi, it brought more of the dog out. So, it was a great balance for me and I credit Michigan for a lot of my success, especially Grand Rapids, my hometown.
Q. I know things worked out well, but did you ever stop and think about what things would have been like had you not left?
DEVIN BOOKER: I haven’t. I haven’t thought about that. I think things would have been a little different. Obviously, I think you learn by living through experiences, and I would have lived a totally different lifestyle if I stayed in Michigan. But I love Michigan and I go back there in the summertime and I spend a lot of time out there. Me and my friends were just talking about it for like the 4th. We were like, Any other place you would rather be if you weren’t in the Finals? And it would be on Lake Michigan probably. But Milwaukee’s on the other side of it, so we’ll be going up there soon.
