LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The lyrics live on the phone of Devin Booker, dozens of them, stored as a digital memory. Kobe Bryant was more than just a short peer. He was a confidant and advisor, a mentor and a friend. Every so often, Booker will pick up and run Bryant’s number, reading through the encouragement (Book ’em! Bryant wrote after Booker 70 dropped in Boston in 2017), advice and endless string of emojis.
‘Kobe,’ said Booker, ‘loves emojis.’
Bryant believed in Booker. The NBA picks it up. The Suns are the talk of Central Florida, running their way back to 5-0 after Miami defeated Saturday night, impossible, closer to the No. 9 seed and a chance to compete for the final playoff spot of the Western Conference. Booker has been the catalyst. He has scored 30-plus in three of Phoenix’s five games. He fell in 35, including the game-winner, in the Suns’ win over the Clippers. He added another 35 against the Heat.
“I’ve been with him since he was in college,” said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. “His game has really grown.”
Devin Booker (1) of Phoenix Suns (1) goes to the court over Andre Iguodala, Miami Heat, left, and Tyler Herro, right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game at Visa Athletic Center on August 8th. in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Ashley Landis / Pool Photo-USA TODAY Sports
You know Booker by the score numbers, but is that all You know? Do you know the play, the six-plus assists that Booker has averaged over the last two seasons? Do you know the defense, gradually improving, the insistence by Booker that hy getting the toughest matchup from the opposition team every night? Do you know the work ethic that has been on display since college, the totally talented teams were amazed to see when this baby versus teenager explained the concept after just one season in Kentucky?
In 2015, Miami brought Booker in for a pre-draft workout. Booker was brilliant, dominant assistant coach Chris Quinn, then just two years removed from a six-year playing career. After the training, Spoelstra, Heat president Pat Riley and several staff members took the Booker team to lunch. They had questions for Booker. He had more for her. “He wanted to know about our team’s make-up,” Spoelstra said SI. ‘He wanted to know the work ethic of our boys. He was really impressive. ”
Ryan McDonough has a similar story. The ex-Suns GM saw Booker in Kentucky, but on a laden ‘Cats team there were only so many chances. Weeks before the concept brought in Phoenix Booker as part of a group training. Booker, says McDonough, was great. “He was so much more than just a catch-and-shoot player,” McDonough said in a telephone interview. “He could do it all.”
Competitive, too. At the end of training, the Suns gather the players for a one-on-one knockout drill. You score, you keep going. You miss, you get away. Booker, McDonough recalls, scored 10 times in a row. Eventually, an assistant coach stepped in to stop the training. Booker hesitated. “He said, ‘I’m not done until someone stops me,’ ‘McDonough said. ‘Finally that one. But that competitiveness in him really stayed out. ”
That workout stuts with McDonough on design night. The Suns had Booker high rank, in a mix of wingers that included Stanley Johnson and Justise Winslow. Johnson came off the board at no. 8, to Detroit. Winslow later went two picks. Phoenix, sitting at 13, had Booker in his sight. When Utah, at no. 12, the clock was ticking, McDonough was sure he had his husband.
Then, McDonough’s phone call. It was Sam Presti, the GM of Oklahoma City.
The Thunder, with the 14th pick, wanted to know if Phoenix would trade.
McDonough told Presti he needed to see who Utah chose.
When the Jazz selected Trey Lyles, McDonough told Presti that the Suns kept the choice.
Presti asked, according to McDonough, who Phoenix took.
McDonough told him Booker. ‘And you would hear or feel that air out of the [OKC] room, ”said McDonough. “You could tell they wanted him.”
Booker was all the Suns asked for, a troubled laborer. He broke the roundabout in the Middle Ages and, says McDonough, “we knew he was there to stay.” Booker’s father, Melvin, was a prominent Missouri star and had a cup of coffee in the NBA. In 2008, after spending nearly a decade abroad, he moved back to Moss Point, a small coastal town in Southern Mississippi. Booker, then living with his mother in Michigan, went to live with him. Dad became coach, with Melvin laying his son through morning workouts on the rough beaches, bowling, ladder drilling, sprinting, pushing Booker’s limits.
“Very intense,” Booker said SI. ‘We would go a few days without talking after some training. But I learned the most about becoming a man and how to approach and take this game seriously. “
Booker brought that work ethic to Phoenix. He arrived early and stayed up late, coughing thousands of shoes. Robert Sarver, the owner of the Suns, had a court at his house, and it was not uncommon for Booker to come over to the practice to shoot some more.
The work paid off, with Booker soon becoming a statistical star. Questions remained, however. The Suns struggled in Booker’s first four years, never winning more than 24 games. They rode through coaches, four in total. Booker’s numbers, some reasoned, were low in calories. He was a good player. He just wasn’t win player.
McDonough heard it. He knew that Booker that I the.
“Not being a winner, and hearing that, that was what worried me the most,” Booker said. “Winning is my main goal when I go out there every day. It’s not about the numbers I put up. As cliché as it sounds, I know everyone says it, but my main goal is to win in court every time and make the right scene. ‘
Booker needed help, and the cavalry arrived last summer. There was Monty Williams, an unabashed Booker fan. Williams recalled watching Booker in 2016, when Booker played for the selected USA Basketball team. “He had no fear,” Williams said. “He made a statement.” Last year, Philadelphia, with Williams on the bench, played in Phoenix. Late in the game, with the Sixers holding on to a seven-point lead, Philadelphia went into zone. Booker brushed it off by hitting a 27-foot button.
Said Williams, “I was like, that boy is different.”
There was Ricky Rubio, the playmaking point guard Phoenix raised a three-year, $ 51 million deal last July. Rubio was all that Booker needed, a pass-first point guard who liked to set him up, a solid defender who could handle difficult assignments. Booker, says Rubio, is a ‘unique talent’ whose footwork reminds him of Bryant. “I don’t think he gets enough credit for who he is and what he does,” Rubio said. “Hopefully he will get more respect … he is a winner.”
IN winner. From Michigan to Mississippi, Kentucky to Phoenix, that’s all Booker wanted. The Suns, despite what happens the rest of this season, are well placed for the next one. “Get my husband out of Phoenix,” Draymond Green said on TNT on Friday, but these are not the same old Suns. Booker and Rubio are locked into long term deals. Kelly Oubre will be signed next season. Ayton, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson are on rookie contracts. James Jones has taken control of the front office and Williams has brought stability to the bench.
Devin Booker # 1 of the Phoenix Suns hits the winning course of the game over Paul George # 13 of the LA Clippers at The Arena at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 4th. in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Kevin C. Cox / pool photo via USA TODAY Sports
‘Since I’m in Phoenix, we’ve not been [team] success, ”said Booker. “We owe it to the fans, we owe it to the organization. It’s a long time for us. This bubble opportunity was great for us, and we take advantage of it. ”
Indeed. Like Bryant would. There are similarities with Booker and Bryant, counter-phenomena that made a rapid impact, late lottery picks with something to prove. Before Bryant won could not win, not without Shaquille O’Neal, not without another completed star. Post-Shaq, pre-Pau Gasol, Bryant was the striker, Bryant was the state stuffer, Bryant put up white numbers in a team that goes nowhere.
On the right forearm of Booker reads a tattoo Be legendary. It’s what Bryant wrote on a pair of sneakers he gave to Booker in 2016. Booker had the ink on weeks after Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash in January. It was his first tattoo. It will be his last. He is reminded of Bryant when he sees his arm. He thinks of him as he rolls through his phone. The last text he sent Bryant came the day of the crash, when word spread that Bryant was on the Southern California chopper.
He asked if Bryant was OK.
The message never went through.
“The most influential moment in my life,” Booker said. ‘But Kobe is with me every day. The Mamba Mentality, the approach, not wanting to lose it at all costs, the competitiveness, the attitude it takes. Have that goal and then know the steps to get in and not cut one of these. Every day is a grind. Every day is a new opportunity to get better. ”
.
