Booker has scored 40 points in back-to-back games in the Finals, a feat that Kobe Bryant himself never achieved.
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Devin Booker needed six years to reach the NBA Finals stage and he’s made the most of his opportunity as the Phoenix Suns battle the Milwaukee Bucks. The Suns trail the series 3-2, but that certainly doesn’t tell Booker’s valuable contributions. The Phoenix’s star has scored 40 points in back-to-back games in the Finals, a feat that Kobe Bryant himself never achieved. He’s done it using many of the same moves that made Kobe a superstar.
The comparison is a fairly obvious one. Aside from their playing similarities, the two shared a special relationship later in Bryant’s career. Booker was drafted before Bryant’s final NBA season. When Booker asked Bryant for advice, Bryant told him to “be legendary”. Booker now wears those words on his shoes during games and has a tattoo on his right hand. When Richard Jefferson asked Booker about his feelings on being compared to Bryant, he made it clear that he doesn’t feel as though he is up that level yet.
“I should never be compared to Kobe Bryant.”
—Devin Booker pic.twitter.com/hcXFSPLScm
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) July 19, 2021
“I haven’t really thought about it much,” Booker said. “I know it’s something that everybody is gonna ask right now, and I didn’t make that comparison myself. Let’s just leave it at what he’s done for me as a mentor and the advice that he’s left me with, so I try to take bits and pieces of his mentality and approach, but I should never be compared to Kobe Bryant.”
Even if Booker comes up short, he and several of the other players Bryant once mentored have shined this postseason. Jayson Tatum scored 50 in a first-round game against the Brooklyn Nets. Trae Young came within two wins of the NBA Finals. And now, Booker is two wins away from the championship and just had one of the best back-to-back stretches in Finals history. Bryant may be gone, but his impact on the league is still being felt to this day.
