One of the biggest stars to shine in the NBA’s bubble thus far has been Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker.
Booker has dominated inside the bubble, leading his Suns squad to four straight wins.
One win came against the Los Angeles Clippers. In that game, Booker sealed the victory with a game-winning shot that was reminiscent of one of Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant’s many buzzer-beaters.
WET LIKE I'M BOOK pic.twitter.com/lilAPdlMS6
— Ahn Fire Digital (@AhnFireDigital) August 4, 2020
On Thursday, Booker spoke with members of the media and touched on how his connection to Bryant is still going strong despite his tragic passing earlier this year.
“Kobe’s with me every day. You guys see what I put on my shoes with the ‘Be Legendary.’ It’s a reminder.”
D-Book talked Kobe's impact on his career. @brkicks pic.twitter.com/8JShaIEL94
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“It comes, in 24 hours, at least two, three times a day it crosses my mind,” Booker said of his thoughts on Bryant. “If not more.”
Bryant had an immeasurable impact on multiple generations of NBA ballers. That fact was abundantly clear when the entire basketball world was brought to its knees after the news of his death in late January.
Since then, players such as Booker have shared incredible stories about how Bryant impacted them both directly and indirectly.
Booker had a personal connection to Bryant and spoke on it shortly after his death.
“It’s been a lot of what I do, man, mentality wise, approach wise everything, before I even knew him personally, he had shaped my life,” he said back in January. “My basketball career. My approach to everything.”
In fact, Booker said one of the greatest achievements of his life was earning Bryant’s respect.
“The biggest thing for me was earning his respect,” Booker said. “To even be the guy in the room after we play them that he wanted to talk to or share advice with. Then our relationship had grown from there. Just figuring out what type of person he was outside of the Mamba mentality. How he raised his daughters and how much of a family man he was something that was just incredible.”
Surely, the way that he is playing in the NBA bubble would have made Bryant even more impressed with the 23-year-old star.
