Devin Booker

Devin Booker (born October 30, 1996, Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.) is an American shooting guard who plays for the Phoenix Suns in the NBA and is known for his explosive scoring performances and smooth technical skills. He first gained wide attention in 2017 when, at age 20, he scored 70 points in a single game, becoming the sixth and the youngest player in NBA history to reach that lofty mark.

Early years

Booker grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his mother, Veronica Gutierrez, a cosmetologist, and an elder half-brother and a younger half-sister. Booker’s father, Melvin Booker, was a college basketball star who played briefly in the NBA and later spent many years overseas in international leagues, including in Italy and Russia. Father and son would spend time together every summer in Moss Point, Mississippi, a small city on the Gulf Coast, where Devin Booker soaked up basketball skills and knowledge from his father and other older players. Melvin Booker retired in 2008 and became an assistant basketball coach at Moss Point High School. He urged his son to come play for the team, believing it would help him grow as a player and a person to live and compete in a predominantly working-class Black community with a strong local basketball culture. Devin Booker played his freshman year at Grandville High School in Michigan but headed south before his sophomore year to play for his father.

Booker thrived in his new environment and went on to average 30.9 points per game as a senior. In the fall of 2014 he joined the famed University of Kentucky basketball program, where he was teammates with fellow future NBA star Karl-Anthony Towns. In Booker’s single college season, he came off the bench and won Southeastern Conference Sixth Man of the Year, helping the team go 38–1 and reach the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. Though he averaged a relatively modest 10 points and 2 rebounds per game, he entered the 2015 NBA draft and was selected by the Suns with the 13th overall pick.

A rising NBA star

In his rookie season, 2015–16, Booker averaged 13.8 points per game, although he showed glimpses his greater offensive potential by scoring at least 30 points in six of his games. A key moment for Booker that season came in March 2016, when he played against Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, then in his final NBA season. Booker and Bryant bore some similarities to each other: they were both 6-foot 6-inch (1.98-meter) shooting guards who had learned the sport from fathers who played overseas, and Booker idolized the older legend. The pair spoke after the game, and Bryant signed sneakers for the ascending star. “One shoe said, ‘To the young one,’ and the next one was, ‘To Book, be legendary,’” Booker told ESPN.com in 2021. “He didn’t only just write ‘be legendary,’ he told me what it was going to take to get there.…He told me I have the footwork, I have intangibles to be legendary.”

Booker steadily boosted his scoring, assists, and rebounding averages in his first years in the league. His headlining 70-point game came during his sophomore season, on March 24, 2017, against the Boston Celtics, when he made 21 of 40 two-pointers, 4 of 11 three-pointers, and 24 of 26 free throws. Two years later, in the 2018–19 season, he became the youngest player in league history to score at least 50 points in back-to-back games. Booker had a breakout year, averaging 26.6 points per game (tied for sixth best in the league) along with 6.8 assists a game. He had strong seasons in 2019–20 and 2020–21 as well, earning a place on the All-Star team both years.

Team success in Phoenix

Despite Booker’s impressive offensive contributions early in his career, the Suns were one of the worst teams in the league. Phoenix went through four coaches in his first four seasons, finishing with a winning percentage under .300 each time. Things began to improve in the 2019–20 season, when the Suns had a .466 winning percentage, and dramatically accelerated after the Suns acquired All-Star guard Chris Paul from the Oklahoma City Thunder in November 2020. With the addition of Paul, a canny tactician and skilled leader on the court, the Suns finished with the second best record (51–21) in the NBA in the 2020–21 season, and Booker reached the playoffs for the first time in his career. The team advanced all the way to the NBA Finals, where the Suns won the first two games before losing four straight, and the series, to the Giannis Antetokounmpo–led Milwaukee Bucks. Booker had played well, though, submitting back-to-back 40-point games in the finals and leading his team in minutes played (40.4) and points scored (27.3) over the postseason.

Booker was even better in 2021–22. He finished in fourth place in Most Valuable Player voting and was named to the All-NBA first team and was made an All-Star. The Suns had the best record in the league (64–18) during the regular season and returned to the playoffs with high expectations. However, they lost in the Western Conference semifinals to the Dallas Mavericks in seven games; Booker had a disappointing 11 points in the deciding game, a 33-point blowout played on Phoenix’s home court.

After the season, Booker signed a four-year $224 million contract extension with the Suns. In the 2022–23 season he averaged a career-best 27.8 points per game, although he sat out 21 games with a groin injury. The Suns—now bolstered by the preseason signing of forward Kevin Durant—made it to the second round of the playoffs. But, in a gutting echo to the previous year’s results, the team lost in seven games, this time to the Denver Nuggets. Booker’s overall postseason performance had been spectacular, as his 33.7 point per game average led the league, but he again underperformed in the final game, scoring only 12 points.

The Suns parted ways with Paul in the offseason, and, as a result, Booker took on more passing responsibilities in 2023–24. He finished the season with the highest assist rate of his career (6.9 per game) while maintaining his elite scoring production (27.1 points per game). In addition, he was named an All-Star for the fourth time and also made the All-NBA third team. However, the Suns were hobbled by injuries during the season and were swept in the first round of the playoffs.

International career

Booker was a member of the U.S. national teams that won gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic) and the 2024 Paris Games. Although Booker was a supporting player on the 2024 team, which was lead by LeBron James and Steph Curry, the national team head coach, Steve Kerr, singled out Booker for praise, calling him the “unsung MVP” because “he’s adapted to being an on-ball guy, ball mover.…The offense clicks when he’s out there, the defense is really good.”