Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker has always been a trash talker.
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.
a very rare Podcast appearance by Booker, he and JJ Redick made it perfectly clear in the release of the latest āThe Old Man and The Threeā episode that Booker has always had this trash-talking element to him.
Redick mentions that he remembers āDevin Booker as a rookie was talking sā to me from day one.ā
āI donāt know where that came from where I just started doing it as of late,ā Booker said. āBut I feel like trash talking is a lifestyle. In the environments I grew up in, it is something I have been doing since weāll say ye-high. I have been doing ⦠(it) in everything we did. Not just basketball. There is an art to it.ā
Redick then brings up player rivalries and says he feels like there arenāt much left in the NBA.
āLike I said, the environments I grew up in, thatās how the game was played,ā Booker said. āMost of the guys that I idolized did the same. And the guys that I still idolize do it.
āI say thereās no real rivalries because grassroots basketball. A lot of these guys weāve known for a really long time, and I think people just realize that itās not that deep half the time. People always say, āOh, theyāre not about to fight out on the court. Theyāre not about to do that.ā Yeah, thatās a half-a-million dollar fight. Nobody should do that. I havenāt hear it too many times where crazy lines were crossed on the court, but it has happened, and Iāve seen people handle it behind the scenes in the correct way like when should.ā