Phoenix Suns superstar Devin Booker is heading to his first-ever NBA Finals appearance and it might not be as smooth-sailing as expected. Booker will be facing an old frenemy in Milwaukee Bucks forward PJ Tucker who will most likely be on his tail for the duration of the entire series. This upcoming reunion brings back memories of when Tucker was still a member of the Suns organization while Booker was still getting his feet wet.

“I would play mind games with him. He’s a kid, so I would just mess with him a lot and he would get frustrated,” Tucker recalled their old confrontations back in 2017 (via arizonasports.com). “He knew he couldn’t beat me up but he would just get frustrated and push (me) and whatever. He had heart, and now you see that; you know he can be a player.”

At that time, Tucker was already a seasoned vet and has made a name for himself as being one of the toughest guys in the league. Booker though, being 12 years younger than his former teammate, was more than willing to go through that mental and physical battle.

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“So excited. So excited,” Booker said Monday on possibly being shadowed by his old teammate during the series. “We have obviously had those matchups before in practice that have gotten heated at the highest level, but he’s a competitor, and I have a lot of respect for that man, so we’re going to be out there battling for sure.”

The Booker-Tucker match-up is surely something we should all be watching closely as the Suns and the Bucks battle for all the marbles in the 2021 NBA Finals.