“Devin Booker Passed a Bum”: Shaquille O’Neal Can’t Help But Diss Charles Barkley After Devin Booker’s 47-Point Explosion

Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns have officially eased past the LA Clippers in just 5 games. So, the franchise has some serious momentum behind them at the moment. After all, despite not having faced off against Paul George, and even Kawhi Leonard for most of the series, winning games means something. And especially doing so in the playoffs can make it feel like the goddess of victory is on one’s side.

That said, there was more to this victory than just moving on to the next round of the NBA playoffs. No, this was a game where Devin Booker moved ahead of a certain Phoenix Suns icon in a rather important list. And after the Suns’ star did it, let’s just say Shaquille O’Neal was looking just a tad bit happier than he has in the longest time. Let’s dive right in, shall we?

 

Devin Booker moves past Charles Barkley in number 40-point performances for the Phoenix Suns in the playoffs

During game 5 of this series against the LA Clippers, Devin Booker recorded 17 points, 8 rebounds, 10 assists, and 2 steals, in 42 minutes of play. Further, the man shot 70.4% from the field, 57.1% from three, and 83.3% from the charity stripe. And all this culminated in quite the bit of NBA history, as you can listen in the Inside the NBA clip below.

EJ: “Devin Booker passes Charles Barkley for the most 40-pt games in Suns playoff history”
CHUCK: “WHAT?!”
SHAQ: “You passed a bum. Thank you, Devin” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/0bVyAyjUFj

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 26, 2023

EJ: “Devin Booker passes Charles Barkley for the most 40-pt games in Suns playoff history”

CHUCK: “WHAT?!”

SHAQ: “You (Devin Booker) passed a bum. Thank you, Devin”

As you can probably tell from the clip and the glee with which Shaquille O’Neal is saying what he is saying, you know this man was beyond blissful about what happened. And well, while Charles Barkley is happy about Devin Booker’s achievement too, we don’t know if his friendship with O’Neal will ever recover from being called such a heinous thing. However, we trust him to be the bigger man here… metaphorically, of course.

 

How many 40-point games did Charles Barkley have in the playoffs with the Suns?

Charles Barkley’s tenure with the Phoenix Suns was relatively short 4 seasons. But, in that time, the man enjoyed some success in the postseason, even making it to the NBA Finals. Unfortunately though, as we all know, it never quite ended in a championship for the Chuckster.

When it comes to the number of 40-point games in the playoffs though, Charles Barkley can hold his head pretty high up, as he has 5 of them with the Suns, with Devin Booker having to get 6 of those bad boys to overtake him. So, a job well done all around.