The NBA All-Star Game is creeping closer, less than two weeks out now, and as the league starts pointing its compass toward Los Angeles, the side attractions are coming into focus. Skills. Dunks. Threes. And yes, the Phoenix Suns will have a seat at the table. Devin Booker is officially in the three-point contest.
This will be Book’s fourth time stepping into that pressure cooker. He did it as a rookie in 2016. He won the whole thing in 2018. He participated in 2020 as well.
Now here we are, round four, arriving during what is, by the numbers, the roughest three-point shooting season of his career. Booker is sitting at 30.7% from deep, knocking down 1.7 threes on 5.5 attempts per night. Not exactly vintage, not exactly automatic, but that is part of the intrigue.
The field is loaded. Kon Knueppel from Charlotte. Tyrese Maxey. Donovan Mitchell. Jamal Murray. Bobby Portis Jr. Norman Powell. Damian Lillard, who is still in this thing despite not having played since returning to Portland after the Achilles injury last season. Booker and Lillard are the only two in the group who have won this event before.
And honestly, this is still the best show All-Star Weekend has left. The dunk contest lost its soul somewhere along the way, back when it became a showcase for guys most fans met five minutes earlier. The three-point contest still brings stars. Real ones. Names you know.
Booker stepping into that rack again feels right. Percentages be damned, it’ll be nice seeing him out there representing the Phoenix Suns.