There has been constant change around Devin Booker since the moment he joined the Phoenix Suns.
The four-time NBA All-Star has played with 114 teammates since being drafted by the Suns in 2015, according to RealGM.com. Frank Vogel is his fifth head coach. There was a change in ownership in December 2022. And of all the Suns players from the team that advanced to the 2021 NBA Finals, Booker is the only one still on the roster.
“I had the most teammates ever in their first five years in the NBA,” Booker said of the statistic to Andscape earlier this season. “So, it’s not really something that’s new to me, but it never gets easier. I develop real relationships with these guys. And you say you will keep in touch. And I still do. But it’s different than spending a whole [season] with somebody. So, I miss a lot of the guys. It’s a real bittersweet thing. But all you can do is get some success in their new situations and hope they get paid and hope it’s better for them.
“What is here now is not bad. It’s like building it from the ground up. I take a lot of pride in this city. They adopted me when I was 18 years old and now I’m 27. We’re in a good place. The city is up.”
The Suns have two other NBA stars on their roster in future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant and three-time All-Star Bradley Beal, but there is no question that Booker is the face of the franchise. And with all due respect to two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, Charles Barkley, Walter Davis, Alvan Adams, Connie Hawkins, Dan Majerle, Amar’e Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Tom Chambers and everyone else to star in a Suns uniform, Booker is closing in on having GOAT status in Phoenix.
Booker is second all-time in scoring in Suns history with 14,529 points in 598 regular-season games. The four-time NBA All-Star is only behind recently named Hall of Famer Walter Davis, who scored 15,666 points in 766 regular-season games. Booker is on pace to surpass Davis to become the Suns’ all-time leading scorer next season.
Considering the Suns’ storied history since the team started in Phoenix in 1968, Booker is proud of what he has been able to accomplish.
“It was already a storied franchise, a great organization with a great history,” Booker said. “The [former owner and president] Jerry Colangelos, the Dan Majerles, the Barkleys. So, the foundation was already there. They just needed a little spark. I had the opportunity to come in and [the Suns] trusted a young player to just do what he does.”
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Booker also recently made his presence known in the business world in the Phoenix area when he joined former Arizona Cardinals star wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and country music star Dierks Bentley as an investor in The Global Ambassador hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Set against the backdrop of the Camelback Mountains, restaurateur Sam Fox’s luxury hotel with 141 hotel rooms and four eateries opened in December 2023. Fox told Travel + Leisure that Booker “has a style and eye for design that’s effortless” and that Booker, Fitzgerald and Bentley even influenced the smallest of details on the project. The Ambassador is also within walking distance of the Suns’ practice facility.
“The city hasn’t seen anything like that,” Booker said. “It’s going to turn into a destination place where people will come out of town just to stay there. You have views from the Camelback [Mountains] all the way to downtown, which you can’t see that anywhere else in Phoenix.”
And perhaps in his most important impact, Booker is helping the less fortunate in Arizona, too.
In 2019, Booker made a $2.5 million pledge to fund 25 grants to support the local community, and children and families in Arizona. In April, that pledge was completed as the Phoenix Suns/Phoenix Mercury Foundation announced that the Devin Booker Starting Five grants funded two basketball court renovations and three learning centers. He is also a Jr. Mercury Legacy League All-Star Ambassador, expanding scholarships to young female athletes participating in YMCA youth basketball leagues in the area.
“Book is special. He means everything to this city,” Beal told Andscape. “You walk around and you see No. 1 jerseys everywhere. The fans love him and the city loves what he does in the community. He embraces this city, this culture as a whole, like his family.”
Booker was a protégé of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. The late Hall of Famer is the NBA’s fourth all-time leading scorer with 33,643 points in 20 seasons while averaging 25 points in his career. The two-time NBA scoring champ also spent all 20 seasons of his career with the Lakers.
Booker is in the midst of the first season of a four-year, $221 million contract with the Suns that will take him through age 31. There have been NBA icons like Bryant, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki who played their entire careers with one franchise. Time will tell if Booker follows in such storied footsteps.
Beal respects Booker’s longevity in Phoenix and can relate after playing the first 11 seasons of his career with the Washington Wizards before being traded to the Suns.
“I know what it’s like being somewhere for a long time in one spot,” Beal, who is the Wizards’ second all-time leading scorer, said. “And that’s a blessing because it doesn’t happen for everybody. Organizations don’t take chances on players like that all too often. But that just speaks volumes to you as a player and also your character …
“You have to be more than just a good player to be in one spot for a long time. It’s also about your impact in the community. Your impact on people day-to-day. And you can see that in the impact of Book, just his interactions, his mannerisms, his attitude. It’s definitely a constant reminder of how I was in D.C. and my longevity. To see it here is supercool.”
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Booker said he never spoke to Bryant about what it was like to play in one place for an entire career, but he does respect the legacy he could create in Phoenix by playing his entire career with the Suns.
“It’s definitely something that’s well-respected through the league for a beautiful reason,” Booker said. “And that’s how you end up owning the city, man. That’s how people look at you as the mayor, the one showing that loyalty from the bottom up. I’m growing up at the same time.
“These fans watched me get older. [I was] immature and I had zero facial hair when I got there. It’s a whole different look now.”
The look now is a desperate one for Booker’s Suns.
The Suns needed to win seven of its final 10 regular-season games to lock in the Western Conference’s sixth overall playoff seed. The reward was a first-round matchup with rising star Anthony Edwards and the second-seed Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves won the first two games of the best-of-seven series by 25 and 12 points, respectively.
Booker was sixth in the NBA in scoring during the regular-season with 27.1 points. However, he has averaged 19 points while shooting just 25% from 3-point range in the first two games of the series. The Suns host the Timberwolves in Game 3 Friday night (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
“Don’t count us out. It’s a series for a reason,” Booker said after a 105-93 Game 2 loss to the Timberwolves on Tuesday.
With Booker, Durant and Beal, Phoenix appeared to be a championship contender entering this season. Booker also said at the beginning of the season that if the Suns aren’t champions, “it’s not a successful season.”
Today, however, the Suns are thinking more about survival than its first NBA championship. If the Suns fall short again, no one will be harder on Booker than himself.
“I’m always my toughest critic,” Booker said. “That’s how it’s going to be. So, I feel the pressure, but it feels good. It’s everything I always want. I’m good at putting things in perspective. [I have a] great family around me, great friends around me in a beautiful situation of living. I don’t mean that to be cocky. I’m just truly grateful for what I’m doing.”
