After the Suns have been swept within the first spherical by the Timberwolves, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith dropped the bombshell that Booker is focused on being traded to New York.
“Booker desires to be in New York,” Smith stated on Monday’s First Take. “That’s what I’m being instructed. Now, he may deny it, I haven’t spoken to him. I’m simply telling you the scuttlebutt within the NBA circles is that the brother wanna be in New York. So if you happen to’re Phoenix, you’ve received at the very least two folks—most likely three—who’re all getting paid about $150 million mixed who don’t wanna be there.”
In fact, some within the NBA group assume that Smith typically talks simply to listen to the sound of his personal voice, however The Ringer’s Wosny Lambre has since backed up his claims.
“Should you assume Stephen A just isn’t tapped in, you’re improper,” Lambre wrote on X. This ain’t out of skinny air. And I’ve heard related issues.
Nevertheless, PHNX Sports activities reporter Gerald Bourguet has poured chilly water on Smith’s claims as he says, “a supply from Devin Booker’s camp who’s intimately accustomed to the state of affairs instructed PHNX Sports activities that these rumors are unequivocally false.”
Bourguet went on to elucidate how far again New York’s curiosity in Booker goes.
“In line with that supply, the Knicks have been focused on Booker relationship again to Leon Rose’s instatement as crew president again in 2020,” Bourguet stated. “Rose, a former CAA participant agent previous to being employed by New York, as soon as served as Booker’s illustration, and different Knicks personnel with connections to the 27-year-old Suns star lately put out feelers about his potential curiosity in coming to New York.”
Suns legend turned NBA analyst Charles Barkley additionally thinks the rumor has no legs.
“Stephen A. thinks everyone desires to go to New York,” Barkley stated on Arizona Sports activities 98.7 FM on Tuesday morning. “Previous couple of years, it’s been Donovan Mitchell. Final time … KD was a free agent it was New York. Stephen A is a good friend of mine, and I really like Stephen A, however he desires everybody in New York. He’s not going to die completely happy till the Knicks win a championship. … You’ll be able to skip that (rumor).”
One factor is for certain, it’s going to be an attention-grabbing summer season.
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