Suns’ Devin Booker wins NBA 2K20 Players Tournament
FILE – In this Jan. 5, 2020, file photo, Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) dunks over Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. in the second half of an NBA basketball game in Phoenix. Booker won the NBA 2K20 Players Tournament on Saturday, April 11, 2020, sweeping Suns teammate Deandre Ayton in the best-of-three final. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File)
Devin Booker won the NBA 2K20 Players Tournament on Saturday night, sweeping Phoenix Suns teammate Deandre Ayton in the best-of-three final.
“I played a lot growing up,” Booker said. “It’s all about timing and eye coordination.”
ESPN broadcast the three-day, 16-player Xbox One competition. The last NBA games were played March 11, the day Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus.
Booker’s Houston Rockets topped Ayton’s Los Angeles Lakers 72-62 in Game 1 and the star guard directed the Denver Nuggets to a 74-62 victory over thee Milwaukee Bucks in the second.
“Anyone who thinks they can play 2K, let’s get it,” Booker said.
Booker earned a $100,000 donation to a coronavirus-related relief effort of his choice. Seeded fifth, he beat Denver’s Michael Porter Jr., Washington’s Rui Hachimura and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Montrezl Harrell to reach the final — also sweeping those matchups.
Ayton topped Chicago’s Zach LaVine, Atlanta’s Trae Young and the Clippers’ Patrick Beverley, using his own Suns to top Beverley in the semifinals.
“I said in the beginning that it was going to be Deandre and I in the championship — and that’s the way it ended up,” Booker said.
The players were seeded by their NBA 2K player ratings.
