Saturday night’s game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns ended after a minor altercation between two of their star players. Rivals Luka Doncic and Devin Booker got into yet another dispute in the last quarter of the game after the Slovenian basketball superstar missed his layup. While officials were successfully able to intervene before matters got out of hand, the dispute served as proof of their intense rivalry. However, it seemed like Doncic wasn’t done and took a jab at Booker. After the game, Doncic clapped back at his Suns opponent during the post-game media interview that ended up reminding fans of a particular Michael Jordan trait.
The recent game between the Mavs and the Suns was a rather significant one. It was the first time that former teammates Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant played against each other since their February trade. While Irving’s arrival to the Mavs gave Doncic a much-needed reinforcement, they fell short of the KD-Booker pairing. Durant scored a game-high 37 points and led the Suns to a 130-126 victory.
Slovenian superstar reminds fans of Michael Jordan
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Following the altercation, reporters present at the media conference asked Luka Doncic about his beef with Devin Booker. As per reports by ESPN, the 2018 third-overall pick answered, “It’s fine. It’s just a competitive game. It’s all good. Just next time, don’t wait until there’s three seconds left to talk.”
Michael Jordan swinging a bat in the Bulls locker room while smoking a cigar and dunking on his opponents is the most Michael Jordan thing ever#TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/jO1qNOcbCV
— Blue Wire (@bluewirepods) May 11, 2020
Interestingly, Doncic’s reply reminded fans of a certain statement by Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan. The comparisons were drawn when Blue Wire uploaded a clip from The Last Dance. In the video, Michael Jordan was seen in what seemed like the Bulls locker room holding a baseball bat in one hand and a cigar in the other.
In the clip, Jordan says, “Well that’s all right. Let’s see if all that trash-talking starts when it’s 0-0 instead of 5-6 point lead. That’s where it starts. That’s the sign of a good man. If you can talk sh*t when it’s even score or talk sh*t when you’re behind score. In your head, it’s easy to talk.”
Twitterati rather had mixed reactions to the whole Doncic-Booker drama. While half the fans found Doncic’s reaction logical and compared him to Jordan, the other half sided with Booker and commented, “Next time, don’t get in your feelings when Book is talking to the refs and you blew a bunny.”?Below are a few more of the tweets.
Luka just like MJ https://t.co/D1MR3R2YBe pic.twitter.com/UP2GT2baar
— 以賽亞書 (@2trayzaay) March 6, 2023
Next time, don't get in your feelings when Book is talking to the refs and you blew a bunny.
— ☀️ go sun 🏀 (@sh0w_must_g0_0n) March 5, 2023
https://twitter.com/isaacouattara12/status/1632500878144831489?s=20
LMAO LUKA FR SCARED OF THE GOAT
— zonerrr (@ZonerrrGoat) March 5, 2023
Playing alongside his daddy Kevin Durant, Devin Booker now wants all the smoke with Luka Donçic Lmao https://t.co/kQT8GntFB2
— Cristiano Leito (@kiassCristiano) March 5, 2023
Luka was mad he missed a layup and book was actually talking to the Ref saying it was a charge them luka at tries to act all tough… that is what happened… Luca just mad he missed
— USA4ever (@USAproudd) March 5, 2023
Devin Booker acting tough once their up. Classic
— Matto (@407matto) March 5, 2023
Im with luka on this one. Booker’s annoying.
— victoria (@VicAntHol) March 6, 2023
https://twitter.com/ItWasAKindness/status/1632503184303472640?s=20
Luka Doncic and Devin Booker clash again
Luka Doncic and Devin Booker have time and again locked horns during the Mavericks vs Suns games and the recent game was no different. With just a few seconds remaining in the game, Doncic went for a layup to tie the score. However, the 4x NBA All-star missed the shot and Kevin Durant ended up getting the rebound point.
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Doncic looked seemingly frustrated following the ‘blunder’ and that’s when things went into disarray. Doncic and Booker suddenly got into each other’s faces for reasons that varied in both players’ accounts.
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WATCH THIS STORY: ?Luka Doncic joins LeBron James, Michael Jordan and other NBA legends in historic list after another 50-point performance?
Apparently, Doncic was annoyed enough to not take Booker’s ‘mocking words’ lightly and yelled at him to ‘Shut the f*ck up’. However, the Suns guard explained that he was telling the ref to call for an offensive foul as Doncic had pushed Josh Okogie split seconds before taking the shot. Whatever may have been the reason, it only went to show the amount of bad blood that the two rivals have between them.