Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker has always been a trash talker.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!However, that narrative quickly change to him only doing the trash talking when the Suns are winning after this infamous Luka Doncic quote from the 2022 Western Conference Semifinals.
“Everybody acts tough when they’re up” – Luka as the Mavericks leave the court after a 110-80 Suns win pic.twitter.com/uCh4DrSFtf
— ABC15 Sports (@abc15sports) May 11, 2022
In a very rare Podcast appearance by Booker, he and JJ Redick made it perfectly clear in the release of the latest “The Old Man and The Three” episode that Booker has always had this trash-talking element to him.
Redick mentions that he remembers “Devin Booker as a rookie was talking s— to me from day one.”
“I don’t know where that came from where I just started doing it as of late,” Booker said. “But I feel like trash talking is a lifestyle. In the environments I grew up in, it is something I have been doing since we’ll say ye-high. I have been doing … (it) in everything we did. Not just basketball. There is an art to it.”
Trash talking is a lifestyle.
Full episode with @DevinBook and @jj_redick: https://t.co/q8tepGSlhn pic.twitter.com/o05iKe3E0P
— TheOldMan&TheThree (@OldManAndThree) March 13, 2024
Redick then brings up player rivalries and says he feels like there aren’t much left in the NBA.
“Like I said, the environments I grew up in, that’s how the game was played,” Booker said. “Most of the guys that I idolized did the same. And the guys that I still idolize do it.
“I say there’s no real rivalries because grassroots basketball. A lot of these guys we’ve known for a really long time, and I think people just realize that it’s not that deep half the time. People always say, ‘Oh, they’re not about to fight out on the court. They’re not about to do that.’ Yeah, that’s a half-a-million dollar fight. Nobody should do that. I haven’t hear it too many times where crazy lines were crossed on the court, but it has happened, and I’ve seen people handle it behind the scenes in the correct way like when should.”
Booker added that he’s usually not the one who starts the talking, calling himself a “competitor” rather than an agitator.
“Believe it or not, I usually don’t start it. But all I need to do is hear any little thing and well…” Booker said.
Devin Booker has no harsh feelings after altercation with Cam Whitmore
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
