Open Thread: Booker, Jones Jr. show off Talent, Skills and high-flying dunks

Talk amongst yourselves as Phoenix Suns representatives dot the All-Star Saturday landscape.

Here’s the whole day schedule:

Let’s review when Suns fans might want to tune in today.

Booker got Talent...3:00 PM AZ Time

This one is so popular it’s not even on the official schedule put out by the NBA.

But leave it to Dave to dig deeper and report the REAL news. There is indeed a Talent Show, and Devin Booker is indeed going to participate.

And then there’s this mentioning Devin Booker’s Forrest Gump-like skills.

Reporter skills, activated.

Jon Leuer nods head in appreciation while juggling.

Booker got Skillz - 6:00PM AZ Time

The last two Suns participants in the Taco Bell Skills Challenge were soon traded away to other teams, and one of them has since graduated to the grown-ups event.

Goran Dragic appeared in 2014 but lost in the first round when Reggie Jackson (his partner in an ill-designed team version that year) before being traded a year later to Miami, and then Isaiah Thomas represented the Suns in 2015 a few days before being traded to the Celtics. Before those guys, the last Suns player in the Skills Challenge was Steve Nash, who was later traded to the Lakers.

This year, it’s Devin Booker repping the Suns. Let’s hope this isn’t the death knell on Booker’s Suns career.

If you want to watch this vid, click here.

Here’s a video of highlights from last year, in case you have no clue what the heck a ‘Skills Challenge’ is.

Airplane Mode engaged, about 8:00PM AZ Time

Hopefully, the world will get to see Derrick Jones Jr., better known as ‘Airplane Mode’, dunk his way into history.

To watch the whole video, click here.

Thanks to the Lakers being so, so, so bad, Airplane Mode got his first dunks in an NBA game just three days ago. But he’s got a fully guaranteed Suns contract in his hand, and he’s been lighting up the D-League this year on his frequent assignments with the NAZ Suns.

Have fun watching our talented guys!