again, he's got Jordan's jump shot, but without his bbIQ and decision making, he's just a great scorer Book scores and blunders for the 3rd time in 1 week. Suns looking good against Charlotte, then: *gets a charge reversed only to commit an offensive foul seconds later. sits in the 3rd with his 4th *gets a technical soon after he finally gets back in *mauls Ball on a drive in crunch time, complains about the call. *doesn't get the foul call on the final 3 because the refs don't respect him it's nice that some players spoke up about Booker's All-Star exclusion. but the coaches and refs don't respect him for a reason
And on the four-point play, he pushed off against Hayward to get open. I was surprised that wasn't called.
It looked like an offensive foul or a non-call but the referees reviewed it and said otherwise. In the old days the non-call on Booker's final shot (when he was actually fouled) might have been considered a make up call. Also referees frequently swallowed their whistle on last second plays back then.
I will agree Book's constant complaining with the Ref's is probably a reason he doesn't get as many calls as some stars get. He seems to be getting a little bit better about it, but I think the problem is he is just a bit hot headed.
I think the closest version of Booker to Jordan is the 98’ version. He didn’t have the explosiveness (probably from the cigar/no sleep lifestyle) but he was dominating with footwork and IQ.
I don't buy it. Plenty of superstar players complain to the refs. Tim Duncan did it all the time, but didn't stop them from giving him preferential treatment. Lebron can arguably be in that group as well.
I think Devin was viewed as just another loser on a loser team that thought he deserved unwarranted "star treatment". All it did was irritate the refs and as a result he developed a very poor reputation amongst the stripes. Amare, on a much better team, did much the same thing in that he was begging for superstar calls before the league was ready to consider him as such. Yelling "and one" every time he thought there was contact on a shot really pissed those guys (and gal) off. Booker doesn't yell "and one" all the time, his sin is that he looks like an entitled brat sometimes when he complains. But to be clear, I really don't think Devin complains anywhere near as much as Lebron does or Tim Duncan did. And, unlike those 2 (and many others), he hasn't developed that annoying habit of whining to the refs in an attempt to dupe them into the wrong call. He complains sometimes when it's unjustified but all of us that have played basketball at any level should have an understanding of that dynamic - it's the reason referees are needed in the first place, we can't fairly officiate our own actions out there.
I don’t think Duncan did it early in his career. And that may have been a big difference. Earned star status first and then started complaining. Didn’t earn the rep early. Once you earn a rep it’s tough to shake.
To my eye, it was quite a bit worse than the one that got him whistled for his fourth foul, right after the elbow-three call was overturned.
People really need to stop comparing Booker’s game to Jordan or Kobe. They just aren’t that similar. He’s a better shooter than they are, but they far surpass his ability to attack the rim, his handles and passing ability to a degree where it’s not even funny.
I always thought that comparing Kobe to Michael was absurd but comparing Booker to Kobe is just as unrealistic. I love Booker but he has no business being compared to an all time great let alone THE all time great.
I think Kobe had a profound impact on Devin Booker and it's carried over to the media. Below are some comments from Devin Booker about Kobe's impact on him. From NBC Sports: “It’s been a lot of what I do, man, mentality wise, approach wise everything, before I even knew him personally, he had shaped my life. My basketball career. My approach to everything,” Booker said. “The biggest thing for me was earning his respect,” Booker said. “To even be the guy in the room after we play them that he wanted to talk to or share advice with. Then our relationship had grown from there. Just figuring out what type of person he was outside of the Mamba mentality. How he raised his daughters and how much of a family man he was something that was just incredible.” https://nba.nbcsports.com/2020/03/04/devin-bookers-new-be-legendary-tattoo-a-tribute-to-kobe-bryant/
