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Former Phoenix Suns HC Earl Watson said he stopped a trade that would’ve sent Devin Booker to the Chicago Bulls for Jimmy Butler: “We’re on a road trip. [Robert] Sarver sends me a text, ‘Come to my house immediately’. I pull up to the house and I sit down, he [Sarver], goes, ‘We have a trade for Devin. We’re gonna send Devin to Chicago for Jimmy Butler”. “In that moment, I was the biggest Devin Booker advocate. It could’ve changed my entire coaching trajectory. I seen a kid that could be one of the greatest players ever. I said, ‘If you trade Devin Booker, I am resigning tonight.”
Devin Booker has been the face of the Phoenix Suns franchise since emerging as a star in his second year in the league. However, it sounds like things could have gone differently, as a former head coach claims he stopped the organization from trading Booker away for Jimmy Butler. During a guest appearance on “Bucks+ Audio,” former Suns head coach Earl Watson, who coached the team in the 2016-17 season, claims that he prevented former team owner Robert Sarver from trading Booker to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Butler. Watson says that he threatened to resign as head coach immediately if the deal went through. It never went through. “I said, ‘If you trade Devin Booker, I am resigning tonight,'” said Watson.
Earl Watson: So Jimmy Butler gets on the block. We're on a road trip. We land. Robert Sarver sends me a text. ‘Come to my house immediately.’ It's like two or three in the morning. I'm not trying to go to nobody house in no two in the morning. I'm trying to go home, right? [laughter] I pull up to the house. It's Sarver. It's Ryan McDonough. And Ryan kind of gave me a look like ‘here we go.’ So I sit down and he goes, "We have a trade." And I go, "What's the trade?" I'm first year head coach. I'm always looking for us to get better. I'm now learning if you don't get better, you are obvious tanking, right? So I go, "What's the trade?" He goes, "We have a trade for Devin Booker. We're going to send Devin to Chicago for Jimmy Butler." In that moment I am the biggest Devin Booker advocate, right? Would have been a hell of a team though: Eric Bledsoe, Tyson Chandler, Brandon Knight, Jimmy Butler. It could have changed my entire coaching trajectory, right? Q. But why weren't you rolling? Watson: I’ve seen I really seen a kid who could be one of the greatest players to ever play. And I sat there and I watched the kid work. I'm in the gym with the kid. I think coaches who don't get in the gym with their players, no matter what your position is as a coach, I think you lose imagination. You got to get on the court. You got to be in the workouts. You got to see what a player can actually do and cannot do. So when you get in the game and you draw up a play, you're confident in that play or you develop plays because you see something that you don't see in practice that you might see in an individual session. Right. So in that moment, Chris, and this was the beginning of the end of me in Phoenix. In that moment, Chris, I say, "If you trade Devin Booker, I am resigning tonight." So, we go back and forth. And right now I feel sorry for Ryan McDonough because he is like ‘oh sh*t.’ I’m like I do not want to trade Devin Booker. You can build around him, I don't want to be the coach that traded potentially one of the best two guards, say five to 10 to ever play. I believe he had that potential. He had superstar potential.
Among Burks’ teammates at the outset with the Jazz were Raja Bell, Al Jefferson, Jamal Tinsley and Earl Watson, all seasoned veterans by that stage. “I learned how to be a pro,” Burks said, as he leaned against a wall at the Heat’s practice court. “That’s where I got drafted and my first two years I had a lot of vets, so they taught me how to be a pro on and off the court.” Now, Burks said there is the opportunity to pay it forward to the Heat’s younger players. “I try to show people how to be a pro, how I learned it,” he said. “So hopefully it translates.”
Law Murray: Asked Derrick Jones Jr. about what he focuses on to be effective defensively He discussed studying tendencies and watching film to see what attackers like to do. Also credited Earl Watson for putting him on Devin Booker and Eric Bledsoe when he was a rookie in Phoenix. pic.x.com/tOpZkYa6qM
Asked Derrick Jones Jr. about what he focuses on to be effective defensively
— Law Murray 🎡 (@LawMurrayTheNU) October 7, 2024
He discussed studying tendencies and watching film to see what attackers like to do. Also credited Earl Watson for putting him on Devin Booker and Eric Bledsoe when he was a rookie in Phoenix. pic.twitter.com/tOpZkYa6qM
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Aaron Rose: For those wondering, Earl Watson is no longer a member of the Raptors coaching staff. @Michael Grange reported both he and Rico Hines, Pascal Siakam “considers close to family,” were let go.
Doug Smith: League sources say Raptors have been quietly interviewing possible assistant coaches this week, expecting a mass exodus from the staff Nate Bjorkgren likely gone, Adrian Griffin up for other jobs, futures of Trevor Gleeson, Earl Watson TBD
Damian Lillard: “When I came in the league, like Jason Kidd was starting for the Knicks and Grant Hill and Kurt Thomas and Kenyon Martin…it was real older dudes in the league,” Lillard said. “I played with Jared Jeffries, he was 40, 41 or something. Earl Watson was 40 when I played with him. I played with real vets, and it was a lot of stuff I learned, like being a point guard or how to lead from Mo Williams and Earl Watson and Jared Jeffries. And they didn’t even play, it was just the way they showed me how stuff had to be done, I had no choice but to respect the game. I didn’t have – the word I was looking for is entitlement. “
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“I mean, like, besides team goals? I know all the goals come from team goals, but I want to be an all-star,” he said. “That’s an individual goal. And then just team goals; winning. The further we go, the better the record we have, the more likely all that stuff can happen, and the more of us can go [to the All-Star Game].” Once the chat had wrapped up, OG Anunoby started to make his way to the opposite end of the gym, where he was meeting assistant coach Earl Watson for some post-practice shooting work. Halfway there, he stopped and paused for a moment before circling back. “Actually, one more thing,” he added. “I also want to make an All-Defensive Team.”
Robet Sarver: "I don’t know how to prove I didn’t do something. Friends and colleagues, white and Black, who attest they’ve known me for 10 and 20 years and have never heard me use language like this or behave in a racist or sexist way are told their own experiences with me aren’t relevant. There was only one named source in the entire piece to stand behind these accusations, former coach Earl Watson. I understand that he is frustrated with me because we terminated him.”
