PHOENIX SUNS

Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum don’t take the Twitter feud fuel

May 26, 2020, 8:12 AM | Updated: 7:51 pm

Devin Booker #1 of the Phoenix Suns drives against Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics at TD Gard...

Devin Booker #1 of the Phoenix Suns drives against Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on December 19, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

If there’s anything we can all agree upon, it’s that the Michael Jordan-LeBron James “Who is better?” conversation will rile people up.

Apply similar comparisons to any other players, and it’s low-hanging fruit to gain likes, follows and lots of replies for your Twitter account.

The latest example came Monday when @TheNBACentral, which has more than 187,000 followers, showed side-by-side photos of Devin Booker and Jayson Tatum while posing this question: Who is the more skilled scorer between these two?

You can imagine Boston Celtics fans like Tatum as the easy answer. Phoenix Suns fans think it’s obviously Booker.

Booker himself did not disparage Tatum, a very good player himself, but did leave his answer a little open-ended despite his likely bias toward himself.

Is he making a joke about being his own fan?

Is he simply giving props to Tatum, a player he respects?

Isn’t it nice to see the guys involved not get sucked into a situation ripe for ugly Twitter arguments?

The tweet by @TheNBACentral was likely sparked by Tatum’s recent admission that he wanted to join forces with Booker on the Suns before the Celtics picked him in the 2017 NBA Draft.

During the suspended 2019-20 season, Tatum had averaged a career-high 23.6 points per game.

Booker, who is about a half-year older, was averaging 26.1. Including this year, Booker has three seasons of averaging more than Tatum’s career-high.

Also, Booker conveniently cited an @NBA tweet from a day earlier that showed him toasting the Celtics for 39 points and nine assists earlier in the season. That was 31 points off his career-high against Boston.

It should be pointed out that scoring averages and cherry-picked performances aren’t the only things that should matter in such a debate.

It should also be pointed out these are always tiring arguments and we can enjoy both Devin Booker’s and Jayson Tatum’s games without getting snippy with random Twitter users about their take being incorrect.

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