![]() “Carrying yourself with that All-Star mentality and title now, it’s a different feel,” Booker said. A playful postgame moment also illustrated that Booker has officially joined the All-Star club, when Kyle Lowry hollered at Booker during media interviews because the young son sitting on Lowry’s lap wanted to say hello. I think I caught a few people off guard with that.”īooker, however, most valued the private moments he observed in the locker room, where veteran teammates spoke about making annual All-Star appearances “like it’s normal.” Booker witnessed their intensity up close in the fourth quarter, when new rules and a “target score” created a wildly competitive and entertaining finish. “I don’t know how I did that, honestly,” Booker said. When Booker later flew in for a second-quarter put-back dunk, teammates jubilantly leapt from the bench to their feet and LeBron James tossed a heating pad high into the air. We’re backing him up like that, and we protect him like that.”īooker first garnered widespread attention Sunday when he took the floor during pregame wearing a custom sweatshirt honoring Kobe and Gianna Bryant, who both died tragically in a Jan. Everybody in the family played a role to get him to this point, and we’re all close like that. “This was part of the plan when him and I started working. “We’ve just been taking it all in as a family, because this is what we worked so hard for. “We all have been together,” Melvin told The Athletic while standing in the tunnel between sections 112 and 113 as Devin went through pregame warmups. ![]() Melvin wore a replica All-Star jersey in the hotel room Sunday, marveling that “it’s crazy to see that ‘Booker’ on the back.” When Devin spotted Veronica and Mya in the United Center stands just after halftime Sunday night, Mya expressed her adoration by drawing hearts with fingers. Parents Veronica and Melvin and younger sister Mya flew with Devin to Chicago on a private jet. The family affair continued throughout a weekend during which Booker, by design, did not partake in many public appearances beyond the league-mandated requirements for every All-Star participant. He received a wake-up call from commissioner Adam Silver early Thursday that he was the injury-replacement choice and, after briefly going back to sleep, celebrated with his family in his Phoenix home. But Damian Lillard injured his groin last Wednesday night, hours before Booker was scheduled to go “off the grid” on vacation. The whirlwind, of course, began before Booker even touched down in Chicago.ĭespite putting up potent and efficient offensive numbers, Booker was not originally voted in as an All-Star reserve by the NBA’s coaches. “Once I get some mental time to take a break from it,” Booker said after totaling six points, four rebounds and one block in 19 minutes of Team LeBron’s thrilling 157-155 victory at United Center, “and realize what just happened and what went down, I think I can really put it in perspective.” And it’s all going to take a minute to fully process. The rest of an eventful All-Star Weekend will be recorded in Booker’s mind. It came out inside the locker room, where teammates are more trusting - and candid - around a peer than in front of traditional media scrums. It was perched on his station at Saturday’s media day when Phoenix Mercury megastar Diana Taurasi happened to walk by, then reached up to wrap Booker in a congratulatory hug. ![]() ![]() It was hooked to his hand when he first touched his Team LeBron jersey, and while greeting teammates during a laid-back Saturday practice. ![]()
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