Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns Photo)
Devin Booker has become a scoring machine in the NBA and is close to reaching 10,000 points in only his sixth season in the league. Tonight he’ll lead the Phoenix Suns against Milwaukee in Game Two of the NBA Finals with the Suns already up 1-0.
Booker was on UK’s 2014-15 team that started 38-0 before losing in the national semifinals to Wisconsin, a loss most UK fans may never forget. However, Booker never scored 20 points in a game at UK and the most shots he took in a game was 10.
So how did he go from a limited scorer in high school to having 70 points in an NBA game?
“I just know it was that Coach Calipari guy,” Booker laughed and said at Wednesday’s NBA Finals press conference when asked about that transition. “No, what I said earlier, every great team has to have sacrifices.
“It might have happened once or twice, but a team that talented, that many guys, that many NBA guys in one practice gym, to even make it work as well as Coach Calipari did with the whole platooning system was incredible.”
Booker then gave a ringing endorsement to Calipari that UK’s loaded roster might want to pay attention to this season when no one is likely to get all the playing time he might like.
“We all had to buy-in. We all had to sacrifice and just understand our role. I mean, Karl Towns didn’t leave the paint. He never left the paint,” Booker said. “Coach Cal, I remember vividly practices where Karl would shoot a 3 and Coach Cal would lose his mind. And now he’s a 40 percent 7-foot (3-point) shooter.
“So just understanding that, understanding and adjusting and what can I do to help this team win. That was my role there. I think I only ran like four pick-and-rolls my whole college career, but it got us in the position to get where we needed to go.”
