NBA finalist and Olympic champion in stride, Devin Booker is back on the field after observing nearly two months of rest. “I feel good, ready to find the team”, he said when relaunching the machine for a new season.
To avoid any hitch and try to preserve it after a full 2020-2021 fiscal year, Monty Williams has already announced that he will gradually put his star back in the bath, Devin Booker having notably been injured in the hamstrings during the finals against the Bucks. But the mental aspect also concerns the coach of Phoenix.
“We’re going to be smart with him. He’s had an incredibly long year ”, recalled the coach. “The emotional toll is what concerns me the most. Physically, there is so much technology, so much in the training facility that our staff can do to help someone stay fresh and get rid of bumps, bruises and aches, but the emotional toll is some. something we talked about as a team and as a staff. We want to make sure we give the guys the breaks they need ”.
A controversy before the recovery
Especially since Devin Booker was shaken by another “extra-basketball” controversy even before setting foot in the Phoenix training center. The rear had indeed missed the first three days of the camp after testing positive for Covid-19 while he was fully vaccinated. It did not take more to ignite the debates.
“I am vaccinated, but I feel it shouldn’t have been a topic of discussion. I stayed home for Media Day looking for statements around basketball but saw nothing. All the press briefings looked like a political debate ”, he said, believing that the subject had parasitized the recovery in the NBA.
In addition to having lost the taste and smell, the player found himself in spite of himself at the heart of the debates, between those who insinuated that he was not vaccinated, and the opponents of the vaccines who saw in his case an example of the ineffectiveness of its protection, this even if Devin Booker did not develop a serious form.
“We are basketball players. Bringing up the vaccine and putting that pressure on some guys about what they should or shouldn’t do with their bodies, I think that’s too much. When I got the virus, people automatically assumed I wasn’t vaccinated. I started to suffer criticism for it. So I can only imagine how people who are not vaccinated feel when they are pressured by people telling them what to do with their bodies ”.
| Devin Booker | Percentage | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | MJ | Min | Tirs | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Until | Pd | Fte | Int | Bp | Ct | Pts |
| 2015-16 | PHX | 76 | 28 | 42.3 | 34.3 | 84.0 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 0.3 | 13.8 |
| 2016-17 | PHX | 78 | 35 | 42.3 | 36.3 | 83.2 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 0.9 | 3.1 | 0.3 | 22.1 |
| 2017-18 | PHX | 54 | 35 | 43.2 | 38.3 | 87.8 | 0.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.7 | 3.1 | 0.9 | 3.6 | 0.3 | 24.9 |
| 2018-19 | PHX | 64 | 35 | 46.7 | 32.6 | 86.6 | 0.6 | 3.5 | 4.1 | 6.8 | 3.1 | 0.9 | 4.1 | 0.2 | 26.6 |
| 2019-20 | PHX | 70 | 36 | 48.9 | 35.4 | 91.9 | 0.4 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 6.5 | 3.0 | 0.7 | 3.8 | 0.3 | 26.6 |
| 2020-21 | PHX | 67 | 34 | 48.4 | 34.0 | 86.7 | 0.5 | 3.7 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 2.7 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 0.2 | 25.6 |
| Total | 409 | 34 | 45.5 | 35.2 | 87.0 | 0.5 | 3.2 | 3.7 | 4.6 | 3.0 | 0.8 | 3.3 | 0.3 | 23.0 | |
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