Former Kentucky star Devin Booker given discouraging injury update

Devin Booker has been having one of the best years of his prolific NBA career thus far. Unfortunately for him and the Phoenix Suns, it looks like they will have to be without him for 2 to 3 weeks due to a Grade 1 hamstring strain, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. Losing the former Kentucky star is a brutal blow to the Suns’ championship aspirations for the 2022 NBA playoffs. Phoenix finished with a 64-18 overall record in the 2021-2022 regular season–good enough for the best overall record in the league by a significant margin. Now, with Booker out, the Suns’ championship hopes appear to be in serious jeopardy, unless other players can carry the load in his absence. While Phoenix won Game 1 of the series, they dropped Game 2 to New Orleans, 125-114, with Booker exiting the game with 4:45 remaining in the third quarter.

The former Kentucky star appeared to tweak his right hamstring when he jumped to challenge a Jaxson Hayes dunk in transition. He immediately asked for a timeout and went to the locker room.

Booker is one of the most complete players in the game and he has grown as a player since his days for the Kentucky Wildcats

Booker’s scoring stats have been remarkably consistent over the years and it’s easy to see he’ll continue to be a top player in the NBA for a long, long time. As a matter of fact, tonight he joined some elite company. He crossed the 11,000 point mark about a month ago, becoming the fourth youngest player in NBA history to do so.

Congrats to Devin Booker on becoming the 4th youngest player in NBA history to score 11K points 🔥 @DevinBook

The other three are LeBron, KD and Kobe 👀 pic.twitter.com/JrpI3aLLpe

— Overtime (@overtime) March 24, 2022

This season, he’s been averaging 26.8 points per game, 5.0 rebounds per game, and 4.8 assists per game. In Tuesday’s game before he was injured, Booker erupted for 31 points in 25 minutes.

When he played for Kentucky during his freshman year, Booker averaged 10.0 points per game, 2.0 rebounds per game, 1.1 assists per game in 21.5 minutes of action. Following the 2014-2015 season, he was named SEC Sixth Man of the Year for the Kentucky Wildcats, as well as the SEC All-Freshman team.