With his team in a hole against the defending champs in their first-round series, Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker let his frustration boil over.
Following his Suns’ 120-107 defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder Wednesday night, Booker blasted the officials, taking particular aim at veteran referee James Williams.
“It’s definitely something that has to be looked into. I heard Caruso tell them to call the tech, and he ended up doing it,” Booker said at the podium with teammate Jalen Green flanking him. “In my 11 years, I haven’t called a ref out by name, but James was terrible tonight, through and through.
“It’s bad for the sport, bad for the integrity of the sport. People are going to start viewing this as the WWE if they’re not held responsible.”
Booker was referring to a strange technical foul he picked up with just a little over two minutes to play in the third quarter, when he appeared to be trying to save a ball from going out of bounds and inadvertently ended up throwing it off Thunder forward Jaylin Williams, causing Alex Caruso to request the referee to hand Booker a technical foul, which was obliged.
During his post-game teardown of the officiating, Booker mentioned that he doesn’t care if he gets fined for his comments, because he believes the video evidence will support his cause.
“It feels disrespectful,” Booker said. “I know I haven’t won a championship in this league but I have been in it for 11 years now, so to get to this point to be treated like that, for me to even be saying something out loud, it’s bad.
“It’s my first time in 11 years (that I’m calling out the officials) but it’s needed. Whatever if I get fined for it, everybody can pull the clips and see where the frustration comes from.”
Booker finished Wednesday’s game with 22 points in the loss.
The first-round series between the Suns and Thunder will shift to Phoenix for at least two more games beginning Saturday.