Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns Photo)
Here is everything former UK star Devin Booker had to say in his postgame press conference after Phoenix lost 105-98 to Milwaukee Tuesday night to give the Bucks the championship after Phoenix had won the first two games in the series.
Q. When you see your coach get that emotional just now, like and just I know that everything is so fresh, but when you can see how much he cares and how much he wanted it, just how does that make you feel as one of his players?
DEVIN BOOKER: I mean, that’s our team. That’s been the name of our team this whole season. We’re an emotional group, we fight hard, we practice hard, we have a lot of fun together and we trust each other and we love each other and we say it all the time. So, we all had a common goal of bringing a championship back to Phoenix and it’s tough to fall short.
Q. Too early to know what you’ve learned from this experience?
DEVIN BOOKER: I mean, it’s hard to narrow it down to one thing. I think we learned a lot just by being in it. It was a lot of our first times in the playoffs, let alone the Finals. But it was a great experience for us. I think we set a foundation and a base for our team, and we all have stuff to work on and we understand that. So, we’re going to take this hurt and bring it into the summer and continue to get better.
Q. How soon do you think you’ll be back in the gym?
DEVIN BOOKER: I got to get on a flight in a couple hours, I think out to Tokyo. So, I’ll be on the court soon.
Q. Can you just even explain what the locker room was like?
DEVIN BOOKER: Silent. Just a lot of emotion. It’s a long season, we went through a lot.
Q. Is there any way you can put in perspective things for Chris or right now being so close but not getting there?
DEVIN BOOKER: I mean, our whole group, again, you know, I got a Chris question before, but all of us wanted it. All of us wanted it. But, I heard what Coach Monty said about people saying you know that solidifies his career and that’s complete nonsense to the real hoopers out there. But our group, we supported Chris all the way, he led us this whole entire season and this is our first year together. So just developing a relationship, developing a trust amongst each other throughout the whole season and for it to fall short like this it’s tough on all of us.
Q. I can remember after the Bubble the guys were saying Coach was saying, time to control your own destiny. Like don’t leave it in somebody else’s hands and all season you guys have controlled your own destiny, so how do you maybe take that and then take the hurt you guys are feeling, so next year if you’re back in this position it will turn out right way?
DEVIN BOOKER: Just keep working. We stressed the details the whole season. We said that the whole season, we were trying to win big and we fell short of that. But like I said, we have a foundation, we have a base for us to learn from, an experience for us to learn from. There’s no moral winners in our locker room, you know what I’m saying? We won the Western Conference Finals or whatever it is, we’ll look back 50 years from now and be able to make those calls. We wanted to win a championship.
Q. I guess the follow-up on that, what type of foundation do you feel like this season laid for you guys kind of moving forward with going from not making the postseason to making a Finals run and just the future that you guys have with so many young talented players?
DEVIN BOOKER: Championship basketball and nothing less than that. So, going into next season on a Tuesday night playing against Cleveland if we don’t have it, we will be quickly reminded about the details and if you don’t want to give it your all right now, what can happen and this feeling right now that we’re feeling can happen. So, this isn’t something you want to feel. I haven’t felt a hurt like this in my life. So, that’s what I say when I know we have a base and a foundation, just championship basketball at all times.
Q. Coach mentioned kind of down the stretch that he could sense that the times when Milwaukee’s experience maybe came through and they have been through as a group a couple of times, they have experienced their own playoff heartbreak to get to this point. For you guys, is this kind of an example of there’s still stuff that you’ve needed to go through and this is kind of one of those, again, tough moments that you have to experience, you can’t skip any steps, like have you to go through that type of stuff to keep growing?
DEVIN BOOKER: I mean, we can say that now. I mean, our goal was to skip a lot of steps as a team, like I said, with our first time in the playoffs and making a Finals run. So, I would say we skipped a few steps, but we didn’t get to the ultimate goal.
Q. To the point that you talked about building the foundation when you look back at your own individual growth, what jumps out to you the most and where do you go from here with building off of that?
DEVIN BOOKER: I don’t like to talk about myself a lot, but it’s far from a spot-up shooter when I came into the league, the reputation that I had. But I just want to play winning basketball at all times. I don’t really care what people think of me or what they say about my game, they haven’t walked in these shoes and experienced what we just went through. So, us as a group we keep this in home and we just, it’s a constant pursuit just to better ourselves, better ourselves as basketball players, as men, as teammates, as brothers, and that we just continue to get better.
Q. What did this playoff run stir up inside you as a competitor and how did you get better as a player over these last couple months?
DEVIN BOOKER: Just got to experience it. Experience is the best teacher. So, I think all of our games have gotten better, and like I said, we understand how important each possession is now and this feeling, I keep talking about the hurt, you know, you don’t want this and this is what you strive for, this is what you go into the summer with and you take it and use it as fuel.
