Devin Booker's connection with Draymond Green 'runs a lot deeper than the NBA'

Devin Booker knew Draymond Green way before the two helped Team USA bring home Olympic gold out of Tokyo this past summer.

"I've known Draymond since high school," Booker said. "Draymond used to send me NBA socks when I was in high school. We have our Michigan connection."

Booker is from Grand Rapids while Green hails from Saginaw.

"It runs a lot deeper than the NBA," Booker said.

Booker and Green were at opposite ends as the Suns (17-3) and Warriors (18-2) faced each other with the NBA's top two records Tuesday at Footprint Center for a late tip-off. The two teams will meet again on Friday at Golden State.

"It's going to be a very physical matchup," Green said after Golden State's 15-point win Sunday over the Los Angeles Clippers, in anticipation of the Suns matchup. "Phoenix is a physical team. They're going to run their sets. Obviously, they're following D-Book and CP (Chris Paul). So you got to try to cut the head of the snake off whenever you're trying to stop anybody's attack."

Booker was named Western Conference player of the week for the fourth time in his NBA career that began in 2015 after averaging 30 points on 53% shooting from the field during Phoenix's 4-0 road trip last week.

The two-time all-star connected on 56% of his 3s (14-of-25) in those victories. This is after making just 10 of his first 36 3-pointers this season.

Booker talked about having to adjust to the new basketballs early in the season, but clearly has found the touch from deep.

"The ball is fine now," said a joking Booker as media laughed after Monday's practice. "Still adjusting. That's part of it. You're going to have to deal with it."

Booker is shooting a career-high 41% from 3 this season.

"We always talk about controlling the controllable. I know the NBA is doing their job of trying to make the most perfect one, the best one everybody likes. You can only learn that through trial and error and I know they're doing their due diligence, bringing the ball around different teams."

Speaking of improvements, Booker said he believes the NBA had better socks back when Green was sending him those.

"I don't know what material they were made out of, but back in the day, they were better," Booker said.

Usually wearing the socks "pretty low," Booker was thrilled to rock those as a high schooler.

"Hell yeah," Booker said. "I was wearing them in my high school games. Wearing NBA socks. That was unheard of. Cause you couldn't get them. It's not like you could buy them at the team store or anything like that. They were only NBA-issued. It was pretty cool to have those."

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Devin Booker's connection with Draymond Green 'runs a lot deeper than the NBA'