“When he was younger he never wanted to play in his own age group, so he always played four years up, in mine. “He was the same size as us,” says Davon Wade, Devin’s older brother by four years. When he was around 11, Devin visited his dad in Italy and met Danilo Gallinari, who gifted him an autographed pair of his Reebok sneakers. #Devin booker family pro#You could trace Devin’s path to the League back to those years-his pops played pro ball, so he wanted to, too. He lived mostly with his mother, Veronica Gutierrez, while his father, Melvin Booker, hooped professionally in Europe. The very beginning.ĭevin was born and raised in Grandville, MI, a suburb outside the city of Grand Rapids. It’s that he’s such a super-fan that he’s been preparing for this moment since the beginning. See, it’s not that Devin isn’t much of an NBA fan. But then you learn it wasn’t too long ago that Booker owned a LeBron James jersey and had a Kevin Durant fathead on the wall of his bedroom. What you’d assume is that some kid with a take-no-prisoners approach would have such an outlook because he never really cared for the NBA bigwigs he’s consistently staring down in the first place. “If you’re a competitor and somebody’s talking trash to you and you’re talking back, you’re getting the best out of everybody. “Anytime I talk trash and somebody talks trash back to me, the level of the game just rises,” he says, smirking. Guys around the League have noted time and time again that D-Book loves to run his mouth on the court. One NCAA Tournament, one All-Rookie First Team appearance, one 70-point game, a slew of 30-something-point outbursts, a shit-ton of three-pointers and a lot of trash talk.Ī whooooole lot of trash talk. Just one year in college and two in the L. It’s strange to think about how fast this all happened, how quickly he went from just another top recruit to the shortlist of NBA upstarts who have Next. Every time I get a chance to play against those guys, I’m not backing down.” When I go against, there’s a fire in my eye, ’cause those are the top guys in the League, and that’s the position I’m trying to get in. “From competitor to competitor, I know the respect. “When I play against guys who are in college or when I go to pick-up games, I respect the kids that go right at me,” Booker adds. But for now, he sits on a stool and wonders why all of the League’s superstars-LeBron, KD, Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade, to name a few-keep saying his name when asked for their favorite up-and-coming NBA player. Sparks are about to tip off their WNBA playoff game, and a few minutes after that Devin will snake through the bowels of the arena and slide into his courtside seat to take in the action. A few floors below him, the Phoenix Mercury and the L.A. He’s sitting in a quiet room on the fourth floor of Phoenix’s Talking Stick Resort Arena, a few feet from where he’ll soon pose for the photos that grace the pages of this magazine. “I think people just respect the competitive nature,” Devin Booker says. I’m telling you.” - Kevin Durant on The Bill Simmons Podcast You better watch out for that boy, because he’s nice. “I love Devin Booker, man … He’ll talk shit, he’ll rough you up. “If it’s someone that’s under the radar right now that I believe is really, really, really going to be an All-Star in this league, it’s Devin Booker from the Phoenix Suns.” - LeBron James on the Open Run podcast
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