Devin Booker didn't let playing with a broken nose slow him down in the Western Conference Finals. (Phoenix Suns Photo)
If Devin Booker is not the best former University of Kentucky player in the NBA right now, he certainly has to be close. And he put himself in elite company with his game one performance in the Western Conference Finals when he had 40 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists — his first-ever triple-double — in a 120-114 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Only NBA superstars LeBron James, Larry Bird, and Bill Russell have ever led a team in points, rebounds, and assists in a conference/division finals game before Booker did it.
Booker has never been one to brag on his play and took the same humble attitude when asked where that game ranked among the big moments in his career.
“That’s for everybody else to rank performances and such. I’m just out there trying to do my job and that’s to win basketball games at all costs,” Booker said.
Booker said his “old-school game” comes from growing up in Grand Rapids, Mich., and then moving to Moss Point, Miss. He said that made him figure out two different cultures and why people act the way they do.
He’s also that rare player who can still score effectively with a mid-range shot.
“That’s pretty much been my game my whole life. I never shied away from it and I never have not taken those shots,” he said. “I feel that’s what a lot of defenses give up, living by the so-called analytics. But if you put your work in and you shoot those shots at a high clip, that’s tough for a defense to guard because that’s what they have been giving up all season,
Going into the NBA Finals, Booker has scored 9,395 points in 409 career games the last six years and also grabbed 1,523 rebounds. He also had 1,899 assists along with 321 steals and 102 blocks. He has started 384 of the 409 games he’s played.
Booker finished with 22 points, seven rebounds, four assists, one steal, and one block in 42 minutes in the series-clinching win over the Clippers as he continued to make the most of his first playoff appearance in his six years with the Suns — who had the lowest winning percentage across all five professional sports when a team makes the championship the next year.
“That’s a relationship that it’s hard to explain with words. I tell people all the time, Phoenix is my third home. And they have embraced me that way since day one. I put my head down, I worked and I’ve been through a lot of bulls— honestly,” Booker said.
“But, just being who I am and seeing the bigger picture, having the tunnel vision you know, what this can be. The love has been there since I’ve been here, even when we were at the bottom. Even when we were at the bottom, it still showed up to games, love around the city’s always been there. So Phoenix is my city.”
