Devin Booker done waiting in bubble to compete for Suns, itching to get back

The NBA has attempted to accommodate its teams as much as possible at the bubble in Orlando.

From a barbershop and DJ sets by the pool to a full lounge for each team, there are things to do besides sit in your hotel room. You can go fishing, play cornhole or cards and take a boat on the lake.

Devin Booker is done with all that.

“Enough ping pong with my friends. Enough bag toss with my friends. Getting some good bump up and down is what I’m looking forward to,” the Phoenix Suns guard said Tuesday.

A few different times during the Zoom call, Booker said there’s not much going on around the bubble. There’s certainly a type of restrictive element to being there, as teams have one practice a day if that, followed by chances to get shots in the gym later that night if they set it up with coaches and get a timeslot.

There’s routine and then there’s being constricted to a routine. With that in mind, Booker has spoken highly of what the NBA has done. It can just be a bit monotonous, as you’d expect.

“Bubble’s been cool, man. I’ve really just been posted, honestly. Just in the room, playing video games, watching a couple TV shows. Not much brewing over here,” he said.

Even then, after going through a quarantine period like many across the country, it was a gift to get back to practice.

“Just getting the chance to compete, getting back out there,” Booker said. “Even in these practices getting up and down, it’s been very refreshing for me [with] the past few months we’ve had off.”

That ties back to the return of games against other competition, which begins on Thursday with the Suns’ first scrimmage.

There will be several new wrinkles to these games, such as playing without fans that will take some getting used to.

Well, or not. It’s the same game at the end of the day, and as Booker always puts it, “it’s just basketball.”

“I’m sure it’ll be a little bit different but I’ve made more shots with people not around than (with) people in the stands,” he said. “I’ve been in this situation before. I’ve played in empty gyms before and I’ve played in packed-out gyms. Just getting the chance to compete is what I’m looking forward to.”

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