Devin Booker’s wallet took a $35,000 hit after his heated post-game tirade, but newly released courtside audio reveals his frustration boiled over long before the final buzzer. The Phoenix Suns star drew a fine for his public criticism of officiating, though the league’s mixed response left many questions unanswered. Behind the scenes, lip readers caught Booker repeatedly venting at officials, capturing the building fury that would eventually explode in the postgame press conference.

LegendZ, a professional lip reader on social media, shared different moments of Booker’s frustration. We all must have seen or heard about the infamous play in the third quarter where Booker dove out of bounds to save a loose ball, inadvertently throwing the ball at Thunder big man Jaylin Williams. It earned him a technical after Thunder players and the head coach persuaded the official. But even before this, D-Book was not happy with the referee.

Booker was particularly upset with a sequence in the second quarter in which he was called for an offensive foul on a drive to the basket. He felt Alex Caruso leaned in for the contact. There was some contact to the face, but Booker thought Caruso exaggerated it. The Suns ended up challenging the play, but nothing came out of it. Everything remained the same, so Booker allegedly said, “This shi- is rigged.” Then on the next possession, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drew a foul on a Suns defender on an eerily similar play. Thus, frustration did accumulate from previous plays, as Booker believed the whistle wasn’t going his way.

Then, in the third quarter, issues escalated when Booker received what many considered one of the most controversial technical fouls of the series. He wanted to keep the ball in bounds but threw without looking. It hit Jaylin Williams, and Caruso thought that was an intentional throw and immediately asked for a tech. Cason Wallace seemed to agree and said, “Y’all can’t let him just throw it?” Even the head coach, Mark Daigneault, got involved and stated, “He threw the ball at him. He f—-g threw the ball.” Initially, both Williams and Booker received technicals for it, but that changed later.

They kept the foul on Devin Booker, who even pleaded, “On my momma’s life, I didn’t intentionally throw the ball. I don’t know where he is at.” And as expected, he was furious and told the referee, James Williams, to look at it again. But he replied, “Why don’t you?” You almost never see an official respond that way, and that’s why D-Book exploded in the post-game media interaction.

“In my 11 years, I haven’t called a ref out by name, but James [Williams] was terrible tonight through and through. It’s bad for the sport, bad for the integrity of the sport. People are going to start viewing this as a WWE if they’re not held responsible.”

The league protects referees with a strict policy, fining players who speak out publicly. The league announced on Thursday that Booker has been fined $35,000 for his “public criticism of the officiating.”

While the league upheld the fine, it acknowledged the error and rescinded the technical foul officials assessed to Booker in the third quarter. So, the issue that Devin Booker raised about it being a wrong foul call actually went in his favor. But this was all after the game, and by that point, the frustration from the Suns had reached a boiling point.

Devin Booker’s teammate joins in calling out the Thunder

It was not only D-Book whose tech was rescinded. The league also rescinded the technical fouls officials issued to Dillon Brooks and Lu Dort with 8:15 left in the third. It was during this play that Brooks’ frustration peaked, and he yelled, “The f—“, questioning the call.

In fact, even fans on the courtside had to bear the wrath, as he told them to “sit the fu– down”. Since the Suns’ players knew they were not at fault, the narrative that the Thunder was favored by the officials gained steam again.

A few weeks ago, the official, Karl Lane, during a separate Lakers–Mavericks game unrelated to either the Suns or Thunder, wore Shai’s Converse SHAI 001 “Charm Black”. Since officials have to wear black shoes and avoid logos, these shoes fit the bill. But it still drew some criticism. After the game, as Devin Booker exploded against the referee, even Brooks expressed his dissatisfaction with the officiating. Since he was guarding Shai, the Thunder star was also not spared.

“He’s a little frail, and that’s what the refs are going to call,” Brooks told reporters. “I got to be smarter about it, but this is the playoffs, a man’s game.” Players are going to be frustrated when calls don’t go their way all night, especially in the playoffs.

In fact, the league admitted there were errors, which is why it rescinded the technicals. But then why choose to fine Devin Booker? After all, his comments stemmed from wrong calls.