2020-21

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Devin Booker emerges from the Footprint Center tunnel at exactly 5 p.m., and begins to dribble sharply on the far baseline.As the Phoenix Suns’ All-Star guard shifts the ball between each hand, player development assistant Corey Vinson slaps at his arms. At the same time, video room intern Jack Gentry leans on Booker’s thighs. Bookers eyes remain locked forward, unfazed by the deliberate attempts to disrupt his rhythm and create physical resistance.The 24-year-old Booker would go on to drop 40 points in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, the second consecutive outing he reached that scoring threshold on the league’s biggest stage. He ultimately finished his first playoff run with 601 points, the most by any NBA player over the course of their postseason debut, while propelling the Suns into championship contention.Booker’s final appearance inside his home arena during the 2020-21 season was the precursor to a whirlwind week, as part of a whirlwind summer, as part of a whirlwind calendar year.About four days after the Finals ended in Milwaukee on July 20, Booker arrived in Tokyo for his first Olympic Games. Donning a white headband and fresh haircut, Booker played in Team USA’s opener against France less than 24 hours later. Then, he moved into the United States’ starting lineup, scoring 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting and adding five rebounds and three steals in a dominant bounce-back victory over Iran.Booker has long emphasized that these are the games he has been waiting for, that he had visualized during solo offseason workouts with his father and King of the Hill bouts with veteran teammates. And this initial foray into basketball at the world’s highest ranks has proven Booker was built for these high-profile moments.“The goal was to always prepare him for every situation that he would see on the basketball court,” said Booker’s father, Melvin. “It’s always for the playoffs or the stage he’s about to go on now. … We always worked to get to this level.”  

Melvin’s phone calls with a young Devin, who at the time lived with his mother, Veronica Gutierrez, in Grand Rapids, Mich., often turned to basketball. Melvin had played in the NBA and overseas for 15 years. But when Melvin asked his son if he put up extra shots following a practice session, Devin was perplexed.That’s when Dad knew Devin would benefit from moving down to Moss Point, Miss., to live and train with him.Melvin calls his experience a bit of a blueprint or cheat code for Devin. But Dad also stresses that it did not take his son long to click into the work ethic, competitiveness and mental toughness required to continuously develop. Melvin believes those intangibles helped Devin go from newbie to high-school head-turner in Mississippi, from Kentucky bench player to lottery draft pick, from little-used rookie to 70-point scorer at 20 years old, and from overlooked multidimensional scorer to two-time All-Star.“We’ve done pretty much every workout you can think of,” Booker said of his father. “ …  I always had a love for the game of basketball. I was always a student of the game. But I wasn’t aware of the work that goes into it. I was always good, but he made me take it the extra mile.“He pushed me. I had never been pushed before. I had never had the truth told to me at all times. It was somebody that is telling the truth out of their goodness of their heart, to see you succeed. You can feel that. it just makes you want to be better every day.”To this day, Devin and Melvin focus on mastering fundamentals, such as the midrange game, finishing at the rim and catch-and-shoot jumpers. When Melvin says Devin must make nine out of 10 shots before moving on to the next spot on the floor, Devin will insist on going a perfect 10-for-10.The drills were always purposeful with a dash of childlike imagination, especially when reaching the NBA Playoffs felt like a distant goal.  “I don’t work out in the summer thinking that my season’s gonna be over after 82 games,” Booker said. “I put myself in a mental space where every shot counts. I try to envision the physicality, even when I’m out there by myself. …“You look up at the shot clock and you pretend it’s winding down. It’s just little things. That’s how you get the most out of your workout. That’s what me and my dad talk about all the time is being efficient with your work. When you’re in there taking every rep serious as if it is the playoffs or as if it is the Finals, you get some really good work in.”

Melvin’s presence has been one of the few constants throughout Booker’s NBA career. The Suns had a rotating cast of teammates and coaches — and far more losses than wins — during Booker’s first five seasons. Defenders regularly double-teamed him. He played through mistakes.And long before the video of Booker working out with Chris Paul immediately after Paul’s trade to Phoenix went viral, Booker battled 1-on-1 with former Suns on the old practice court in the arena’s basement.An early challenger was the much bigger P.J. Tucker, who confirmed their matchups got testy. Another was coach Earl Watson, whom Booker credits as “one of the early ones in the NBA industry to believe in me.” Then came the universally respected Jamal Crawford, who called Booker a “true hooper.”“Everything he's doing now,” Tucker said of Booker before Game 1 of the Finals, “ … We all knew that he was going to be really good. Like, he wasn't just good. He was really good. …“Being his teammate at that time and being the vet on the team, it was my job to make him better. I knew what I had to do for what he was going to see and what was coming and what he needed to be ready for. …“But he, like, showed that he was one of the ones. He just, like, took it, and he just elevated. He became who he is and who he's continuing to be.”Those life and basketball experiences turned Booker into “the oldest 24-year-old I’ve ever met in my life,” according to the 36-year-old Paul.Coach Monty Williams, meanwhile, says Booker “reminds me of a few of my uncles. If you walked into a room, you may think that they’re mad at you because they didn’t say anything or they may just deadpan you for about 15 seconds.” The coach also admires Booker’s blend of confidence and no-excuses attitude, along with the fact that he does not buy into the NBA’s new-school clique culture.

Booker, though, has developed deep trust with this version of the Suns.When he first met Williams at a Scottsdale restaurant in the spring of 2019, he told his new coach he will do “whatever it takes … let me know what I got to do. Let me know what I got to be better at, (and) be honest with me.” Booker jokes he sees head athletic trainer David Crewe more than his mother while concocting a recovery routine — with the help of an infrared sauna red light therapy bed in his home — that has made him stronger, more explosive and more durable. Booker constantly praises the Suns’ culture, calling it “an environment to get better in.”These days, Melvin will text Williams during the offseason to ask how he plans to use Booker for the upcoming season. Melvin will then implement appropriate drills into their workouts in Los Angeles. It’s a collaboration Williams appreciates, knowing overbearing helicopter parents exist even at the NBA level.“Melvin’s experience, his personality, the respect he has for the team and coaching,” Williams said, “I would imagine has allowed for him to continue to work with his son but also give us space and try to help him as well.“Because of what I knew about that relationship, it allowed for me to not even worry about Book. I knew he was getting the work in.”  During the past two seasons, Booker has blossomed into an efficiently silky scorer at all three levels and an excellent passer. He drew national acclaim during the Suns’ 8-0 Orlando Bubble run — including an iconic game-winner over the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard and Paul George — that began one year ago Saturday. He flourished with a fellow backcourt star in Paul, illustrating he cares about winning over personal statistics. He has gained more respect as a defender, thanks to a willingness to get over screens, physically man up and fly in for the occasional chase-down block.Then, Booker emphatically answered any questions about how his game would immediately translate in the playoffs.His 34 points in Game 1 of the first round against the Lakers were the most by a Suns player in their postseason debut. He notched a 40-point triple-double, the first of his career, in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the Clippers, when Paul was in health and safety protocols. Two days later, Booker set the game-winning screen on Deandre Ayton’s “Valley-oop” with a broken nose, prompting Ayton to wear a shirt featuring Booker’s swollen face as a game-day fit. Rather than undergo anesthesia for the procedure to repair the break, Booker had his face numbed and fixed before the Suns’ charter took off for Los Angeles.“Now people know Book is tough,” Ayton said. “They knew he was a scorer, but he’s legit.”  

Melvin most saw the results of their tireless work whenever the Suns could eliminate their opponent.Booker scored 47 points — including 22 during an unconscious first quarter when he shot 8-of-9 from the floor and 6-of-6 from 3-point distance — at Staples Center to knock out the defending-champion Lakers in Game 6. He totaled 34 points, 11 rebounds and four assists as Phoenix finished off a four-game sweep of the Denver Nuggets.And when he flew down the lane for a dunk, flex and scream in the second half of Game 6 against the Clippers, which helped the Suns clinch their first Finals berth since 1993, Melvin knew “he’s trying to end this.”“This is our first time seeing this,” Melvin said. “ … but these are things we’ve talked about. If you have somebody on the ropes, go ahead and knock them out. In elimination games, he’s taken his intensity to the next level and his game to the next level.”  

Ahead of the Finals, Melvin said he had not seen this much basketball joy in Devin since his Kentucky team went unbeaten through the regular season and NCAA Tournament before losing in the Final Four. During the Suns’ struggles early in Devin’s career, they stepped back and set incremental goals, starting with making the playoffs and then making a deep run.“For some reason, we decide to do it all in the same year,” Melvin said with a laugh.  “ … He paid his dues. That’s the best way. You know the word they use now, ‘You get it out the mud’? He got it out the mud.”Booker’s record-setting individual playoff output combined with team success was perhaps only surpassed in NBA history by Magic Johnson, who won Finals MVP on a championship Lakers team during his rookie season’s postseason run in 1980. Booker was a huge reason why Phoenix took a 2-0 lead against the Bucks, combining with Paul to create the highest-scoring backcourt duo in the Finals’ first two games in NBA history.But that Finals series also included some important growth moments for Booker.Booker went 3-of-14 from the floor in Game 3. Though he responded with torrid shot-making in Game 4, foul trouble hamstrung a night that Williams believed Booker could have gone for 50 points. With a chance to take the lead in the final minute of a pivotal Game 5, Booker picked up his dribble in the lane and pump-faked, leading to a game-sealing Jrue Holiday steal.Though the playoffs largely felt as he imagined they would, Booker acknowledged before Game 6 that “experience is the best teacher.”“Getting the chance to be out there in the fire is what you're going to learn from most,” he said.Following an emotional Game 6 loss in Milwaukee, Booker shared a flight to Tokyo with the Bucks’ Holiday and Khris Middleton to fulfill an Olympic commitment and lifelong dream that he regularly reaffirmed throughout the Finals. Williams did not express concern about Booker’s workload and short turnaround, noting he “loves to hoop.”That Booker required the last-minute, across-the-world trip because he played in the NBA’s final game of the 2020-21 season illustrated his continued ascension into elite company. He combatted jet lag and significant time-zone adjustment by squeezing rest in whenever he could. He wore a Team USA hat to his postgame Zoom session following his strong performance against Iran, where he mixed jumpers and authoritative finishes with rebounds and steals.  

Though Booker fell two victories shy of an NBA title, a gold medal could be on the horizon.“When you're competing at the highest level, it doesn't always go your way,” Booker said of his transition from the Finals to the Olympics. “But I'm a forward thinker, and I move on to the next thing. Be able to take my ‘L’ and move on."No word on if Booker has recruited any Team USA staffers to slap at his arms and lean on his thighs as he warms up on the world’s stage. But this week, this summer and this year have proven Booker was built for the high-profile basketball he had always visualized.Then whenever this whirlwind finally settles down, Booker will be right back in the gym with his dad.“I don’t have to push him to work hard,” Melvin sad. “I think that comes back from his childhood, like, this is what it takes. The work that he put in, he saw he was successful with it, and I guess he feel like that’s the only way to do it. …“It became such a habit to work so hard, to put in all the extra work, that whenever he doesn’t do it, it just doesn’t feel right to him.”  

built-for-this

BUILT FOR THIS

Sam Harvey

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July 17, 2021: Suns vs Bucks

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July 14, 2021: Suns at Bucks

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July 11, 2021: Suns at Bucks

MILWAUKEE — As Chris Paul soaked in the fervor of finally clinching his first trip to the NBA Finals, he thanked the Los Angeles Clippers organization and fans that he represented for six seasons. He praised Monty Williams, the coach he went on a playoff run with more than a decade ago and has reunited with in Phoenix. He pointed up to a Staples Center suite, to his family that had been with him through injuries and crushing losses, along with the best moments of his Hall-of-Fame career.

But when ESPN’s Rachel Nichols asked Paul why he wanted to join the Phoenix Suns, without hesitation, he pointed to his left and proclaimed, “that light-skinned dude over there, No. 1.” 

That dude was Devin Booker, the rising All-Star aiming to propel the Suns back to prominence. And Paul’s gut was correct about how pairing them together would unfold.

Booker and Paul have created a lethal backcourt tandem in their first season, culminating in this magical playoff run that now stands two victories away from their first NBA championship. The 36-year-old Paul looks like an ageless wonder, while the 24-year-old Booker looks to be revving up for a dominant prime. 

Entering Sunday’s Game 3 against the Bucks, Booker and Paul are coming off scoring the most points by a starting backcourt in the first two games of an NBA Finals in league history (113) — a feat that left Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer unable to come up with an appropriate comparison. 

“I'm having a hard enough time trying to figure out how to guard those two,” Budenholzer said matter-of-factly and with a hint of exasperation. “I can't come up with a good comparison for you." 

Booker and Paul are both ferocious competitors and basketball junkies, making them kindred spirits despite the 12-year age gap. They are both maestros in the pick and roll and in the lost art of the midrange jumper, consistently getting to their spots with the ball in their hands without it feeling too “your turn, my turn.” And they’ve both displayed a willingness to sacrifice personal scoring or shine, because winning is all that matters at this critical juncture of their respective careers.

It’s a partnership that is both surreal and splendid, and that has the Suns on the verge of reaching the NBA’s mountaintop.

“They’re the perfect fit. They’re the perfect storm,” said Melvin Booker, Devin’s father and a former professional basketball player. “They’re the same person. They’re so competitive. As they said, they’re both dogs.”

Booker can still mimic how the public-address announcer would yell a high-pitched “C-P-threeeee!” whenever Paul made a shot from beyond the arc with the New Orleans Hornets. 

A teenage Booker and his dad used to make the 110-mile trip from Moss Point, Mississippi to New Orleans to watch Paul and the closest NBA action. Booker became such a “fan boy” that he wore Paul’s shoes throughout his whole high-school career.  

“Somebody I’ve idolized for a very long time,” Booker said.

Booker eventually morphed into a one-and-done lottery prospect, the sixth man on a stacked Kentucky team. While Booker worked out ahead of the 2015 draft with close friends Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell in Los Angeles, Paul stopped by to train alongside them shortly after he and the Clippers were eliminated from the playoffs.

Paul immediately noticed through drills that Booker had a smooth shooting stroke. But when the session shifted to 1-on-1 work, Paul got a taste of Booker’s edge. After the workout, Paul told then-agent Leon Rose (now the New York Knicks’ president), “Man, he good. He nice. He can play.”

“He didn’t care what it was,” Paul said of Booker. “He was competing. One thing you get a chance to see in this league is that a lot of guys that are like that go a lot further than guys who are just skilled." 

Later that day, Paul invited Booker, Towns and Russell to his home to talk about NBA life on and off the court. How seriously Paul took his craft — including hiring a personal basketball trainer, chef and someone to work on his body — immediately resonated with Booker.

“He pulled up fresh off the season, and that meant a lot for us,” Booker recalled, “for a Hall of Fame guy, an All-Star guy to come in the gym and work with us guys (who) hadn’t proven anything in our careers yet. …”

“He was giving us the breakdown of the business of the game. This was all at a time before we were in the NBA, so to see somebody have it all the way together (when it came to) professionalism at the highest level (was helpful).”

But when Booker and Paul began matching up against each other as NBA opponents, in Paul’s words, “we (were) damn near about to fight a lot of times.” Booker concurs, saying, “I started talking (expletive) to him right away.” Booker has pulled up clips on an app that compiles all shots taken against an individual matchup, when taking Paul into the post every time he would switch onto Booker resulted in a healthy dose of chriping.

“He would be, like, ‘I'm not going for that. I'm not going for that today,’” Booker said. “ … I scored on him a couple times, and he stopped me a couple times.”

But after games, Booker and Paul would always chat. When Booker made his first All-Star team last season, cameras caught he and Paul sharing a warm greeting in the locker room. Paul, who watches games around the clock, could see Booker was a promising player who, because of team struggles and organizational instability during his first five NBA seasons, had not gotten the chance to showcase his abilities on a meaningful stage. 

“I knew that,” Paul said. “It ain’t about noticing that. … Like, we know each other, know each other.”

When rumors began swirling that the Suns might trade for Paul following their stunning 8-0 Orlando Bubble run to close the 2019-20 season, Devin and Melvin immediately thought “we got a really good chance” to have a special season. Booker and Paul went through an on-court workout in Phoenix together hours after the acquisition became official, squeezing the session in before Paul was due on set to shoot a round of State Farm commercials.

During a 3-on-3 drill the first day of training camp, Booker said he and Paul “got into it … I don't think (we were) really about the throw hands, but the closest thing you can do to that without doing it.” Yet Booker also immediately praised Paul’s leadership style that demanded focus but also built camaraderie with new and younger teammates.

“That drives me,” Booker said during training camp. “You can feel his presence in the gym. It’s not necessarily you’re out there to impress him. You just know the level of play that he’s played at, the level of intensity, the level of competitive spirit that he’s always performed at.

“I’ve never dealt with it first-hand and being next to him, but just watching him from afar … it definitely holds me to a higher standard every time I walk in here.”

The on-court fit between two ball-dominant guards was not seamless at first. The Suns began the season 8-8 and, around that time, Williams shared in a meeting that their starting unit had the worst plus/minus in the NBA.

Williams believes today that he tried to force what worked during the 2019-20 season with Booker and Ricky Rubio. The coach vowed to get out of the way and allow Booker and Paul to figure out how to complement each other and enhance their teammates.

They focused on details such as screening angles, ball and body movement and pace. Paul, who missed a chunk of the preseason, got more comfortable running the Suns’ sets. They reminded the group that defense would fuel their offense. They sacrificed their own potential shots to elevate the play of Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson.

“They see so many defenses and they don't force the issue,” Williams said. “That's the one thing I've noticed with those guys. Very rarely do they wave somebody out of their way, meaning their own teammate. They just make the next right play.”

The Suns’ offense steadily climbed into the top 10 and stayed there as the Suns posted the NBA's second best regular-season record at 51-21. Both players have been dangerously effective with the ball in their hands by deploying different styles. Booker is the crafty bucket-getter with a mix of “Point Book” distributing skills. Paul, meanwhile, is a clinical surgeon who manipulates the defense while rarely turning it over, and can get to his signature elbow jumper whenever he wants.

By midseason, Booker and Paul were both All-Stars. By July, Paul was a second-team All-NBA selection after averaging 16.4 points and 8.9 assists per game during the regular season, and Booker (25.6 points, 4.3 assists per game) a first-time Olympian.

They also give the Suns two knock-down clutch options. A prime example of the Booker-Paul tag-team occurred in the final seconds of a January game at Dallas, when Paul delivered a perfect bounce pass to Booker for a game-winning 3-pointer.

Meanwhile, Booker and Paul continued to build their off-court bond.

They live on the same Valley street, making it easy to get together to watch, rewind and dissect the nuances of games on any given night. Booker has observed the Paul’s diligent routine to take care of his body, calling it “inspiring.” He, Paul and Booker’s dog, Haven, regularly pile into the car to go to the 5G Performance Center for daily COVID-19 testing, or to go to Melvin’s house for chats that lasts hours.

Recent postgame news conferences have also given a rare public glimpse into their off-court dynamic. As Paul called Booker “the oldest 24-year-old I’ve ever met in my life” following Game 4 of the Clippers series, Booker slyly munched on sushi at the back of the room. When Paul spoke after the Suns won the West, Booker walked into the room unannounced, pulled up an extra chair and set the trophy next to Paul.

And Booker still has those moments when he reminds everybody around him, “That’s CP3!”

“There’s zero ego involved,” Booker said. “I think that’s the most important part. We both want to see each other succeed. We both want the team to succeed. We all want the team to succeed. So when you’re all on the same page in that way, the relationships tend happen.”

Added Paul: “That’s why I think this has worked — because there’s no ego from either one of us.”

On the night Booker dropped 47 points to help the Suns knock out the Lakers out in the playoffs’ first round, Melvin told the Pauls “you don’t understand how happy we as a family are to have the Paul family in Phoenix and on this team with us” while celebrating in their Staples Center suite. Paul was sensational in the close-out games against Denver (37 points) and the Clippers (41 points) — performances that sandwiched a Booker 40-point triple-double (the first of his career) in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

But the backcourt’s scoring punch has reached historic heights during the Finals.

In a 118-105 Game 1 victory, Paul scored 32 points on 12-of-19 shooting, while Booker collected 27 points including 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. Two days later, Booker buried seven 3-pointers as part of his 31 points, while Paul added 23 points.

With less than eight minutes to play in that 118-108 victory, Booker set a screen for Paul and, when P.J. Tucker left Booker to double Paul on the right wing, Booker got free at the top of the 3-point arc. Paul flipped the ball to Booker for the wide-open look to push Phoenix’s lead back up to 13 points.

It was the type of sequence Paul envisioned when he signed off on joining the Suns, that he shared with the world minutes after reaching the Finals together.

Now, this lethal backcourt tandem, these competitively kindred spirits, these midrange maestros who just want to win at this critical juncture of their careers, are on the cusp of propelling their team to an NBA championship.

“It’s kind of strange that just growing up literally being a fan boy of him and now (I’m) right next to him in the backcourt,” Booker said. “It’s just crazy how life comes full circle. I’m blessed to be in this position.”

dynamic-duo

Dynamic Duo

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July 8, 2021: Suns vs Bucks

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July 6, 2021: Suns vs Bucks

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June 30, 2021: Suns at Clippers

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2020‑21