Rookie Rivalry: Devin Booker Throws Shade at JJ Redick

Devin Booker apparently talked “s**t” to JJ Redick as a rookie, at least according to Redick.

The Phoenix Suns star recently made an appearance on Redick’s podcast, The Old Man and the Three. During the episode, Redick got brutally honest on Booker’s trash talking as a rookie.

“We were talking earlier and you (Booker) said to me… ‘People think I didn’t talk s**t until we started winning,’” Redick said. “And I just want to let the audience know that Devin Booker, as a rookie, was talking s**t to me from day one.”

“Down 20,” Booker responded. “I don’t know where that came from, where I just started doing it as of late. But I feel like, you know, trash talking is a lifestyle.”

Is Devin Booker’s trash talking good for the NBA?

Booker has had some heated moments with other players in the NBA. Of course, Booker and Dallas Mavericks Luka Doncic have developed a rivalry over the years. In today’s NBA, though, rivalries are not incredibly common. Redick later asked Booker if it would benefit the league to have more rivalries.

“Yeah… the environments I grew up in, that’s how the game was played,” Booker said. “And you know, most of the guys that I idolized did the same. And the guys that I still idolize do it.”

Devin Booker is a great player. He is one of the best scorers in the NBA, and he finds ways to help in other areas as well.

Booker also clearly feels passionate about trash talking. It’s something he does and will continue to do. And apparently he has been doing it for a long time.

JJ Redick was a great three-point shooter who had some respect around the league. Yet, Booker must not have been intimidated at all if he was talking trash to Redick despite being down by 20 points as a rookie. Booker has maintained that mentality as his career has progressed.