Xavier Booker takes exception to criticism of Moneyball performance

Star Michigan State basketball big man Xavier Booker didn’t take too kindly to some rather harsh criticism of his Moneyball showing.

Year two of Xavier Booker already has people buzzing.

There has been plenty of excitement this offseason surrounding Booker whether it’s been with his weight gain (up to about 245 pounds) or the fact that he’s working out with NBA superstars like Jaren Jackson Jr. or LeBron James. People are buying into the Xavier Booker hype.

We usually see a lot of growth from year one to year two in Tom Izzo’s system and the former five-star big man should follow that trend. A lot of talking heads have even stated that they’ve been hearing good things about Booker this summer from East Lansing.

However, one podcast didn’t like how he looked during the opening night of the annual Moneyball Pro-Am. The Sleepers podcast called his performance on the first night a “disaster”, knocking his mentality during the opening night.

Booker didn’t take too kindly to the criticism of his night one performance at Moneyball, replying to the YouTube video on the podcast’s channel.

Thought that Xavier Booker looked like he wanted to show off a little more Tuesday night than the other sessions. Didn’t realize he saw the negative comments of some talking heads that weren’t even in attendance pic.twitter.com/ZXUZf4oc66

— L➰➰min Kn➰tty (@Loomin_Knotty) July 11, 2024

Everything he responded with was fair. It’s tough to really knock his performance if you weren’t at the game and you can’t fault some of these players for not wanting to go all-out during a Pro-Am with a risk of injury looming. Booker even stated that he hyperextended his knee and wasn’t in a “full sprint” for the rest of the game because he didn’t want to further injure himself.

Booker sounded off with one final comment by saying, “I’ll remember this vid tho.”

It sounds like he wasn’t trying to put his body at risk for a Pro-Am where 10 guys are playing and no one is caring about minutes or even defense. It’s really hard to take away anything meaningful from Moneyball, especially when it’s about a player’s “mentality”.

Sure, if this were a regular-season game, these criticisms would be valid, but Moneyball is essentially a pick-up game with even less defense.

Booker has the bulletin board material he needs.