No talk about the National Basketball Association finals

Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday and Devin Booker flew together to Tokyo

Friday, just days after their Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns played in the hard-fought National Basketball Association finals.

But that’s behind them now. Middleton and Holiday of the Bucks and Booker of the Suns have other business to attend to as members of the United States Men’s National Basketball Team trying to find its way in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

They had roughly nine hours in the air to relive details of that series that Milwaukee won in six games, to revisit some of their memorable moments. Booker and Middleton both had 40-points in the series and Holiday provided a highlight that will be replayed in Milwaukee for years to come, perhaps for the 50 years it took for this franchise to win a second championship.

So with all that time to kill on the way to the Olympics, how much talk was about the NBA finals?

“There was actually none,” said Middleton. “We all respect each other. It was all about moving on and figuring out a way to get this job done here. To be there and talk about the finals was not something that was on anybody’s mind.”

It was a whirlwind few days after a draining two-week series. And with the Olympics already tipping off its basketball opener less than 24 hours after they landed in Japan, this flight was the only rest these three were going to get.

“I feel like me,” Holiday said, “Book and K-Midd just slept.”

Booker reiterated that, he could work with the two, adding that he simply has a lot of respect for these guys and when you’re competing at the highest level, it doesn’t always go your way.

“But I’m a forward thinker,” he said, “and move onto the next thing, which is playing for our country and returning with gold medals. I’m very confident of this and so are Coach (Gregg) Popovich and the rest of the team.”