It's no secret that Devin Booker grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant. And just a couple of days since Bryant's untimely passing on Sunday morning, Booker fittingly broke one of his idol's records this season.
According to StatsCentre, the Phoenix Suns rising star surpassed Bryant as the fourth youngest player ever to record 7,000 career points.
Playing his 2nd game since the passing of his basketball hero Kobe Bryant, @Suns superstar Devin Booker hit the 7000 career point threshold in a 133-104 blowout of the Mavs Tuesday. With it, he fittingly edges Kobe for 4th here (youngest among guards to boot) pic.twitter.com/tesykr7Uij
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) January 29, 2020
Booker reached the 7,000-point plateau at 23 years old and 90 days, while Bryant did so in 23 years and 139 days.
Booker played his second game since the death of his childhood hero and he didn't disappoint, leading the Suns to a dominant 133-104 road victory over the Dallas Mavericks. The multi-talented scorer dropped 32 points on 12-of-20 shooting, to go along with two triples, six rebounds, nine assists, and two steals.
Both the Mavs and the Suns paid tribute to Kobe by taking 8-second backcourt and 24-second shot clock violations respectively to honor the late Lakers legend. Bryant tragically passed away in a fatal helicopter crash that also took the lives of eight others, including his daughter, Gianna.
The entire world is still grieving the loss of one of the greatest to ever step foot on a basketball court. Bryant surely became an inspiration to many, including Booker, who grew up watching and studying the game of the five-time NBA champion.
Booker has certainly picked up some mannerisms and moves from Bryant's game and he has done a magnificent job incorporating them into his own repertoire. This season, the 23-year old is doing a great Kobe impersonation with a career year in Phoenix.
In 44 games so far, Booker is putting up nightly averages of 27.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 6.4 assists, while shooting an extremely efficient 51.0 percent from the field and a steady 36.8 percent from three.
In 2017, Booker joined a short-list of six players, including Bryant, who scored at least 70 points in a single game. Of course, as we all know, Kobe is no. 2 on the all-time single-game scoring list when he torched the Toronto Raptors on that historic day in 2006 with an 81-point masterpiece, arguably the greatest scoring performance in the modern day NBA.
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