The Phoenix Suns now have two players in the NBA2K Players Tournament Elite 8. Deandre punched his ticket Friday and Devin Booker did the same Sunday afternoon.
Devin Booker, known basketball star and gaming superstar, set aside Call of Duty for an hour on Sunday afternoon and took part in the NBA2K Players Tournament. His opponent was the Devin Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr., who while putting up a good effort, never had a chance.
Booker’s teammate, Deandre Ayton, already advanced in the tournament Friday night when he beat Zach LaVine of the Chicago Bulls. Now it was Booker’s time to cruise to the Elite 8.
Not unlike Ayton, Booker lived and died by the 3-point shot, but while Ayton heaved up a bunch of ill-advised deep balls, Booker’s came off a lot off well-run pick-and-pops.
I don’t have the stats but Brook Lopez (Booker played with the Milwaukee Bucks, more on that in a minute) made about 47 3s. Booker only scored 85 points so I’m not sure how the math works out on that, but trust me, it happened.
The way this tournament works, Devin Booker won’t be able to play with the Bucks again, but another team he is also emphatically not going to play with is the Phoenix Suns.
When Michael Porter asked him (jokingly) at the beginning if he was going to run with the Suns, Booker laughed and said, “Uhhhh, no!”
The Phoenix Suns aren’t great in the game, so it makes sense from his hardcore gamer strategy mindset, but Booker took to Twitter to clarify, so that it didn’t look like he was trashing his team.
Because @NBA2K has my player messed up https://t.co/iHpVqugU6n
— Book (@DevinBook) April 6, 2020
So the real reason is 2K player messed his player up. Translation: my rating is way lower than it should be so I’m not picking them out of spite.
This is true, by the way. Booker only has a rating of 86 which is criminally low.
The other big takeaway from the game was that Devin Booker does not hold the same animosity as most Suns fans do toward Eric Bledsoe. After every time Book scored with virtual Bledsoe, he screamed out love for his former teammate and fellow Kentucky alum.
“Yeah, Bled! That’s my homeboy right there!”
The biggest takeaway is that Booker is good at 2K. Like, really good. Like, he runs plays and executes and them and as a lot of perfect releases on his shots. He’s going all the way and him being the favorite to win it all before tourney started was spot on.
Booker himself seems to think so too. As the game ended as he went up 85-75 in the final seconds, he yelled, “No one is getting within 10 points of me!” Strong words. Tons of confidence. I love it.
Booker now plays Rui Hachimura in the second round, who beat Donovan Mitchell. Spida didn’t want none of Book.
Go Booker. Go
Suns
whoever he picks in NBA2K.