Devin Booker, PJ Tucker excited to take on old practice battles in the Finals

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Phoenix Suns (17) and Devin Booker (1)’s PJ Tucker react to a wrong call during the second half of the team’s NBA basketball game against the Golden State Warriors, Wednesday, February 10, 2016, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

PHOENIX – In 2015, not many people were keeping an eye on the Phoenix Suns shooting guard Devin Booker as they do now. With his team now in the NBA Finals six years later, that makes sense.

But those who were watching closely at the time through a mill from the loss in Phoenix until the team’s ascension saw a young player who held a lot of promise. It was more than just, “Hey, I love that Baby Poker.” There was a potential stardom looming.

Former teammate PJ Tucker was an early adopter, and now as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks, Tucker sees what he predicted will pay off on the league’s biggest stage.

“Everything he’s doing now, we knew,” he said on Monday. “We just got to know, and when I was around and played against a bunch of guys, in this fraternity we all know each other. We all played against each other. We all knew it was going to be really good. Like, it wasn’t just good, it was really good” .

Tucker had found a foothold in the league by the time Booker was drafted in 2015. Booker’s first year with the Suns was Tucker’s fourth, and by that time the older player had cemented himself as one of the strongest players in the league.

This made Tucker a fan favorite. He is the only player to have won the Dan Majerle Hustle Award for Excellence more than twice, receiving it four years in a row from 2013-16.

Tucker has a special relationship with Phoenix, the city he called his “second home.”

It’s also the team that gave him another chance in the NBA. Tucker spent five years abroad after just one season in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors, the team that drafted him in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft.

“Frankly, Phoenix is ​​everything to me,” he said. “Like, I actually rejected my contract, had to go back to Russia, which is the biggest contract I was ever going to sign, and it was a really big decision for me to do that. I wasn’t happy with that at first, but my wife and agent talked me into it, and it ended up being The best decision I’ve ever made and changed my life. So I’m so grateful and indebted to Phoenix, the staff, and the people who were here.”

With that in mind, it was understandable for the 36-year-old to honestly say his first championship rift was the only thing on his mind, and not so much that the Suns and Booker have accomplished in the past two years.

But even with the rival that he is, can part of Tucker be happy with the Suns’ rise and the position they are in now?

“The people I know and love are here, of course. But no,” he said while noting that it was somewhat embarrassing. “I’m sorry no. No.”

justice!

Tucker joked after another question that this was turning into something where he takes root against Phoenix, but you have to understand what that kind of chance means for a strong player like Tucker.

Which takes us and Booker takes us as teammates.

With Tucker a brilliant start into the first season of Booker and the young Booker worked his way into the rotation, leading to plenty of matches between the two in practice over the course of that season and a half before Tucker was traded to the Raptors in February of 2017.

Tucker knew his role in those battles.

“Being his teammate at the time and being a team vet, it was my job to make him better,” he said. “I knew what I had to do for what he was going to see and what was coming and what he needed to be prepared for. So I was literally — (laughs), it was like that. It was really like that.”

What Tucker is referring to is what Booker described in November 2017 as “a lot of fights, a lot of pushing, a lot of arguing,” but all out of love to make each other better.

With that, Tucker had anyone’s best view of what Booker would become now, a two-time All-Star and has a lot to achieve at 24 years old.

“He showed he was one of those. He just took it, he just lifted it,” Tucker said. “He became what he is and continues to be. It is – yes. “

Tucker said with a smile in 2017 that he had “taken liberties” with Booker.

“I would play mind games with him. He’s a kid, so I would mess with him a lot and he would get frustrated,” Tucker said. “He knew he couldn’t hit me but he would get frustrated and push (me) and whatever else. He had a heart, and now you see it; You know he can be a player.”

With Booker having more experience over the past four years since the two were teammates, there’s no doubt that you have to be a part of him ready to get the best of Tucker after that kind of dynamic.

“Very excited,” Booker said on Monday about being defended by Tucker in the series. “Obviously we’ve had those confrontations before in practice and they’ve gotten hot at the highest level, but he’s a competitor, and I have a lot of respect for that guy, so we’ll be there fighting Certainly.”

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