WHO NEEDS A SUPERTEAM WHEN THE NBA HAS DEVIN BOOKER?
Anyone who can revive the lowly Phoenix Suns — and break the Kardashian Curse — is capable of winning a title in his first playoff voyage, regardless of the mystery involving Chris Paul and COVID-19
The superteam, in the final scripture, was a supertriage. And don’t let the Brooklyn Nets use the LeBron James plea — only 71 days between seasons — when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving never played in the Bubble. As purists wag fingers and breathe easier today, the truth about star compilations in sports has been re-asserted: A franchise cannot randomly collect three basketball geniuses like stock acquisitions and be assured of an instant title.
They are human beings, vulnerable to age and injury despite the hype and ‘‘GREATEST TEAM OF ALL TIME’’ bombast. When Durant has to play hero ball for all 53 minutes of a stirring Game 7 with James Harden hamstrung on one leg, Irving in civvies and the Nets bench producing zero shots and zero points, well, this experiment of excess buckled beneath its frail self, left to consider what might have been when few want to hear it.
‘‘I wasn’t planning on losing,’’ said Durant, who tried his damndest not to.
‘‘If Kyrie and me are healthy, it’s a different conversation,’’ said Harden, who still hasn’t won anything.
‘‘With Kyrie out and James on one leg,’’ coach Steve Nash said, ‘‘you have to understand it’s not normal.’’
What IS normal … and so very welcome: The NBA is likely to have a fresh, clean, organic champion. If this is the first time since 2006 that James, Steph Curry or the late Kobe Bryant won’t be in the Finals, this also is a time to celebrate new stories and stars who didn’t contrive their way to a massive, glittering city. The Eastern Conference favorites become the Milwaukee Bucks, from the nation’s 37th-ranked TV market, led by a patient Greek titan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who could have joined the get-me-out-of-here portal like Durant, Irving and Harden but chose to remain a long-term Cheesehead and beat the superteam. ‘‘The Milwaukee Bucks,’’ said TNT’s Charles Barkley, for what it’s worth, “are going to win the world championship.’’
And the Western Conference favorites become the Phoenix Suns, who hail from the lonely scorched desert but have produced Hollywood odes normally linked to L.A. glamour — such as, Devin Booker’s love voyage with Kendall Jenner and Chris Paul’s State Farm ads, now running in even heavier rotation. I will disagree with Barkley. The Suns are going to win the NBA championship, and now that America officially has met Booker, maybe you’re with me.
He has been around a while, long enough to withstand a franchise’s dog days and draw spiritual lessons from Bryant. Booker impressed him enough that the legend, before his final Arizona game in 2016, left him a pair of shoes and signed them with a message: ‘‘To Book … Be Legendary.’’ So when the Suns eliminated James and the Lakers last month, at Staples Center, there seemed a transfer of inspiration in a building where Bryant’s two uniform numbers — 8 and 24 — hang on the inner wall.
‘‘Honestly, I was thinking about Kobe and the conversations that we had, kind of about what we just went through, the postseason and being legendary and taking the steps to get there,” Booker said that day.
Weeks later, minus Paul in Game 1 of the conference finals, Booker was legendary. He saved his first career triple-double for L.A.’s surviving team, blistering the Clippers relentlessly in a 40-point, 13-rebound, 11-assist, playmaking masterpiece that elevates him to the tips of sporting tongues. Just as Kobe ached to be Michael Jordan, Booker aches to be Kobe. Maybe that’s a stretch, but in outdueling Paul George late in a 120-114 victory, a foundation for a legacy was born.
‘‘I just saw his will — Devin Booker’s will,’’ said Suns coach Monty Williams. ‘‘I’m sure he’s learned a ton from his time with Kobe. … That’s who Book is. He’s been waiting for this moment, for these moments, for a long, long time.’’
For the uninitiated who, sadly, only pay attention to large markets, Booker is one of the top five reasons to watch pro basketball … with a bullet. Not far behind is Atlanta’s Trae Young, who also remains alive as a thrillmaker in his first NBA postseason. He reached the Eastern finals with theatrics similar to Booker’s but not with the same consistency, with the Hawks advancing over dysfunctional, Process-crashing, Ben Simmons-loathing Philadelphia despite his 5-of-23 shooting and six turnovers in Game 7. To be clear, Young is not Booker.
He was mentored by his father, former University of Missouri star Melvin Booker — who moved his son from Michigan, where Dad played for the minor-league Grand Rapids Mackers, to his native Mississippi, where Devin learned the game and attended high school. John Calipari found him, but he chose to bring Booker off the bench in his only Kentucky season, when the Wildcats were undefeated before losing in the Final Four. Some NBA teams thought Booker wasn’t ready. The Suns did, drafting him No. 13 after Booker informed two franchises drafting ahead of Phoenix that he didn’t want to play for them.
It takes some gumption to play hardball at age 19. But anyone watching Booker sees more than gumption — poise, maturity, wisdom, high intellect. Hell, his middle name is Armani. ‘‘That’s being a product of your environment,’’ he explained Sunday. ‘‘I always credit certain situations I loved being in — growing up in Grand Rapids, Mich., moving to Moss Point, Miss. For me, that was a major culture shock. But I fell in love with culture, figuring out people, where they’re from. It’s just being a sponge to people — seeing different things, loving culture, loving people. That’s where it came from.’’
Which might shine light on how he maintains a relationship with Jenner, one of the world’s biggest social-media influencers and celebrities, when so many other athletes and entertainment stars have been haunted by ‘‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’’ experiences. Booker doesn’t talk about it much — who can blame him? — but they’ve made their romance public via Instagram and other platforms. He is the prince of positive vibes, after all, and when they emerge after dinners at Nobu in Malibu, there’s no paparazzi drama. I’m not sure he even notices the cameras.
He’s just loving culture, loving life, managing the obstacles — such as that involving another mentor, Paul. Without him in the series opener, the Suns won anyway in part because their opponent is the Clippers, who are still the same cursed show until they reach the NBA Finals — and that isn’t happening if Kawhi Leonard keeps struggling with his own thirty-ish ailments, such as a knee ligament strain.
The reason Paul wasn’t in the arena? You may have heard of it: COVID-19. Contrary to the creeps who continue to think it’s a hoax — though I’m not sure how Planet Earth can force 3.9 million actors to effectively fake deaths — the pandemic continues to rage worldwide in variant forms and impact sports in North America. The afflicted can return from COVID, with no greater example than golfer Jon Rahm, who drilled birdie putts of 24 and 18 feet on the final two holes to win the U.S. Open … after testing positive for the coronavirus earlier this month. But as the Spaniard said after winning on Father’s Day, he wouldn’t have prevailed without following protocols and entering quarantine.
‘‘I'm a big believer in karma, and after what happened a couple weeks ago, I stayed really positive knowing good things were coming,'' Rahm said. ‘‘I didn't know what it was going to be, but I knew we were coming to a special place. I just felt the stars were aligning and my best golf was to come.''
We continue to be a nation divided, this time by vaccines, with barely half the 18-and-up population inoculated by two jabs while the other half wrestles with anti-vaxxer attitudes involving race, religion and geographical ignorance. In the close-quartered world of sports, the unvaccinated will continue to put teammates, coaches and personnel at risk and threaten to sabotage games, if not entire seasons. One might ask: Is it the public’s business whether a player is vaccinated? Your stone-cold answer: When sports is plunging headfirst into the scandalous waters of legalized gambling and taking a fraction of a bettor’s wager, then, yes, vaccine transparency is paramount — unless the leagues want to live a lie and keep exploiting problem gamblers. Which makes the Paul case worth scrutinizing on two fronts: Is the NBA being honest about his day-to-day situation, knowing he might own the biggest mass name recognition of the remaining playoff stars? And are the Suns, as a long-woeful franchise with a championship at stake, going to be completely upfront about his condition?
‘‘As far as Chris is concerned, it's just a day-to-day thing with him right now," Williams said. ‘‘I probably drive the people here in town crazy with that, but that's the way it is. We're hopeful that any day now we hear that he can ramp up and get back with us, but right now he's in the protocols."
What’s especially disturbing about Paul, longtime president of the National Basketball Players Association, is that he has been vaccinated. And according to the league, only one of 164 tests administered to players since June 9 has come up positive, making it unlikely he was the one. So his placement into the NBA’s health and safety protocols is based on … what, exactly? Close contact with an infected person? Symptoms consistent with COVID-19? The league hasn’t specifically said — and commissioner Adam Silver must be shaken that a responsible union leader who received the vaccine would miss the biggest game of his NBA career due to the virus. Logic suggests Paul will return for Game 2 on Tuesday night, six days after the announcement he had entered protocols — especially if he’s able to produce two negative PCR tests in the space of 24 hours. If not, by league rule, Paul might have to wait ‘‘at least 10 days since the date of his first positive test or the onset of any symptoms,’’ which would sideline him for Game 2.
‘‘Control what we can control,’’ Booker said.
It figures such calamity would strike Chris Paul. With the likes of Durant, James and Curry on vacation, it finally seemed he might win a championship at age 36, with his fifth team, in his 16th season … and COVID happens, after a shoulder injury hampered him earlier in the playoffs. Three years ago, Paul and Harden were poised to purge the Golden State dynasty when Paul’s hamstring didn’t cooperate. Before that, when he was with the Clippers, Paul and Blake Griffin were doomed by injuries. Paul has had many discussions with Booker about life, sometimes summoning Williams, who lost his wife, Ingrid, in a 2016 car accident.
‘‘I'm probably not the guy to talk to about cruel stuff. I know what cruel is, so it's just basketball," Williams said. ‘‘I know how bad (Paul) wants to win, but at the end of the day, when we get paid to do what we do, you got a beautiful wife and children with a Hall of Fame career. He's handled these things well, and I don't doubt that Chris will come through this stronger and better. But what we're going through now is not the worst thing in the world.
‘‘Now, as it relates to his career and legacy, it is hard, and I get that. To be where he is and how he's played for us, and not be able to play at the highest level, that's hard. But Chris is mentally strong — he'll be able to handle it and help us the right way."
When the Suns returned to the locker room after the win, they immediately huddled around a Face Time screen. Paul was waiting for them. ‘‘We lean on him for a lot. We know how disappointed and frustrated he is that he couldn't be out here, especially knowing his past history around this time,’’ Booker said. ‘‘But we had him all the way through. We brought him in the locker room, had him in our after-game huddle. He's proud of us. He's ready to get back, he's working, and we can't wait to have him."
If necessary, he can take his time. Devin Booker has this.
Jay Mariotti, called ‘‘the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes sports columns for Substack and a Wednesday media column for Barrett Sports Media while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts in production today. He’s an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and radio talk host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects. Compensation for this column is donated to the Chicago Sun-Times Charity Trust.