The past seven days for Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker have been an entertaining ride. He operated on both ends of the fan spectrum, receiving superstar-girlfriend support across social media on one day and being distracted by an opposing mascot on another.
It began Jan. 7, when the 25-year-old guard received a loving boost to a potential third All-Star selection from his girlfriend, Kendall Jenner. She took to Twitter, where she asked her 31.8 million followers to vote for Booker. Her social media campaign to help her boyfriend make the trip to Cleveland also spilled over to Instagram, where she has 212 million followers. The two began dating in 2020.
y’all know i wanna see #DevinBooker play in the All-Star Game #NBAAllStar 🤍
— Kendall (@KendallJenner) January 7, 2022
The tweet came the day after NBA Communications released the first fan voting update on Jan. 6. At the time, Booker ranked No. 5 among guards with 338,526 votes.
The next update came on Thursday, and Booker’s fan vote total rose to 648,317, but he still trails Klay Thompson’s 749,038. He’s also behind Luka Doncic, Ja Morant and Stephen Curry in the guard category. Those three have at least 1.4 million fan votes each.
Fans, who account for 50% of the final All-Star vote that determines the starters, will continue voting through Jan. 22.
Booker’s name also made the rounds on social media after the Suns’ Jan. 11 game in Toronto. Phoenix held a one-point lead with 6.5 seconds remaining, and Book made his way to the charity stripe for two clutch-time free throws.
Fans were not in attendance at Scotiabank Arena because of Ontario’s COVID-19 protocols, but one team employee was determined to distract the shooting guard.
Toronto’s mascot, Raptor, caused such a ruckus behind the basket the referees relocated the red dinosaur to the sideline for a timeout.
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While shooting free throws, Devin Booker complains to the referees that the Raptors mascot is distracting him behind the backboard, so they send him to the opposite end of the court.
Booker hit the free throws, Phoenix won the game 99-95, and he ensured there were no hard feelings with Raptor.
“We hashed it out. We homies now,” Booker said in the postgame news conference.
The two even changed their profile pictures to signify the short-lived beef.
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/WnUyNxt1JQ
— Book (@DevinBook) January 12, 2022
#NewerProfilePic pic.twitter.com/w7Z8xtcaXY
— The Raptor (@the_raptor) January 13, 2022
The Suns’ and Raptors’ social media pages took the opportunity to exchange some playful jabs.
.@DevinBook | #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/ofKzWZmGW6
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) January 13, 2022
When you don’t need an empty stadium to shoot a free throw#NBAAllStar #FredVanVleet
1 RT = 1 VOTE 🙃 pic.twitter.com/V25VnvTzkH
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) January 13, 2022
As Booker prepared for Friday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers, someone in a dinosaur costume was waiting in the stands — no doubt inspired by Toronto’s mascot antics on Jan. 11.
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) January 15, 2022
Source: www.espn.com