TOKYO — Months after LeBron James lost a Finals, he’d always say it was something he’d never get over. Good thing he never had to be Devin Booker, who barely had 10 minutes to try and put it behind him.“I’m a forward thinker and able to move onto the next thing, and be able to take my ‘L’ and move on,” Booker said Wednesday, in his first comments since the night his Phoenix Suns lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, eight days ago.
Booker’s situation is unprecedented, not because his team lost an NBA Finals or even because he had to follow it by playing for Team USA, but that he had to do so in the same week. And two players from the Bucks are not only also on the American team, but circumstances were such that the three had to share a private plane ride across the Pacific last weekend — a day after the Bucks’ championship parade.
“The memories are there, but it’s nothing personal between us,” Booker said. “We lost and that’s it, and I’m man enough to accept that and move on. There’s no hate towards Jrue or K Mid.”
A couple of naps later, and Booker is now a starter on the USA Basketball team that’s trying to win gold. He scored 16 points in a win over Iran Wednesday. During his remarks to media members after the game, the tone of his voice sounded like he was indeed still hurting and searching after a crushing Finals loss in which the Suns took the first two games of the series.
He talked about how “it’s not going to be easy to ever even get the opportunity to be there again,” and if his teams do reach another Finals, and winning it, “you look back at the one that you lost and say what could have been.”
Booker’s coach on Team USA, Gregg Popovich, and teammate Draymond Green (not to mention assistant coach Steve Kerr, but we digress) have been in Booker’s shoes, having lost a Finals. He said Popovich and Green discussed it with him “in short conversation.”
“Talkin’ about it with Draymond, and him stressing the fact that it’s not gonna be that easy to get back to the Finals,” Booker said. “I remember us as a team saying that in the locker room after we lost — you know we’ve got to understand, it’s going to be even harder to make it to the point we were at. … But I’m excited for the experience. It was great. I am glad I got to do it, obviously ended up on the wrong side of the stick, but that’s life.”
Booker said he watched Team USA’s exhibition games on off nights during the Finals. Asked about playing alongside Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, and the rest of his American teammates, Booker said he was “just soaking it all in.”
“Usually you’re not on the same side as these guys,” he said. “Any short conversation or anything they say, I’m a sponge to it. I’m listening, and not just asking all questions, but observing from the side and taking bits and pieces. … Any bits and pieces I can take that I can learn from and I can take back to my team when we go back, I am trying to take advantage of that.”