Devin Booker

Published April 19, 2026 · By The Basketball Fans Editors

Full name

Devin Armani Booker

Born

1996-10-30, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Nationality

American

Height

6′5″ (196 cm)

Position

Shooting guard

Teams

Phoenix Suns

On March 24, 2017, against the Boston Celtics in the TD Garden, Devin Booker scored 70 points. He was 20 years old and 145 days, the youngest player ever to score 70 in an NBA game. He went 21-of-40 from the field, 4-of-11 from three, and 24-of-26 from the free-throw line in 45 minutes. The Phoenix Suns lost the game 130-120; Boston, then a 51-win team coached by Brad Stevens, intentionally fouled Booker on multiple late-game possessions specifically to keep him from breaking 80. Isaiah Thomas defended him for stretches and afterward called Booker’s performance “the most complete young-guard scoring night I’ve ever seen on this floor.”

The 70-point game has, in the nine years since, been the high-water mark of Booker’s offensive career. He has not, in any subsequent NBA game, scored above 70. He has, however, become the franchise centerpiece of one of the most consistently competitive NBA teams of the 2020s. He has made six All-Star teams. He has reached the NBA Finals once (2021). He has, in 2026, just turned 30 years old.

He is also one of the very few NBA players whose mid-range jumper, in an era of three-point analytics dominance, has been preserved as a primary offensive weapon. The Booker mid-range pull-up is, by basketball-historical convention, the most direct stylistic descendant of Kobe Bryant’s 2000s shooting form in the modern game. Booker has spoken about this lineage in multiple interviews; Kobe was his shooting mentor through the final two years of Kobe’s career.

Grand Rapids and Moss Point

Devin Armani Booker was born October 30, 1996 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His father, Melvin Booker, was the 1994 Big Eight Player of the Year at the University of Missouri and a long-time professional in Italy and Russia after a brief 13-game NBA career with the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, and Golden State Warriors. His mother, Veronica Gutierrez, was a Mexican-American local hairstylist in Grand Rapids. The Bookers separated when Devin was young.

Devin lived with his mother in Grand Rapids through middle school. At age 13 he moved to Moss Point, Mississippi to live with his father, who had retired from professional basketball and returned to his hometown. The decision was specifically about basketball; Melvin wanted to coach his son personally through the high-school years.

Devin attended Moss Point High School. His senior year (2013-14) he averaged 30.4 points and was named Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year. He was a five-star recruit and committed to Kentucky in October 2013.

Kentucky

Booker spent one season at Kentucky (2014-15). He was a reserve on the historic 38-1 Wildcats team that reached the NCAA Final Four and lost to Wisconsin in the national semifinals. Booker averaged 10.0 points in 21.5 minutes per game. He was the team’s sixth man behind a starting lineup that included future NBA top picks Karl-Anthony Towns, Trey Lyles, Tyler Ulis, and Aaron Harrison. The 38-1 Wildcats are, by most retrospective rankings, one of the three or four most talented college basketball rosters of the modern era.

He declared for the 2015 NBA Draft. The Phoenix Suns took him 13th overall. Twelve players went before him; only Kristaps Porziņģis at fourth has matched Booker’s career value, and arguably none of the others have surpassed him. The 2015 draft is, in retrospect, the worst NBA Draft of the 2010s decade for value above pick number twelve.

The Suns: ten years, six All-Star teams, one Finals run

Booker’s first three NBA seasons were the rebuild years. The 2015-16 Suns finished 23-59. The 2016-17 Suns finished 24-58 (the 70-point game came late in this season). The 2017-18 Suns finished 21-61. Booker averaged 13.8, 22.1, and 24.9 points per game across the three seasons.

The franchise turned in 2018-19 with the arrival of Deandre Ayton (the first overall pick) and the 2019 hiring of head coach Monty Williams. The 2019-20 Suns went 8-0 in the Bubble (a perfect record that did not get them into the play-in but signaled the rebuild was nearly done). The 2020-21 Suns finished 51-21 and reached the NBA Finals.

The 2021 NBA Finals

The 2021 NBA Finals are the closest Booker has come to a championship. The Phoenix Suns won the first two games at home against the Milwaukee Bucks; Booker scored 27 in Game 1 and 31 in Game 2. The Bucks then won four straight, with Giannis Antetokounmpo putting up the 50-point Game 6 close-out at home. Booker averaged 28.2 points per game across the six-game series, the highest scoring average for a player on a losing Finals team since Allen Iverson’s 35.6 in 2001.

The Suns have not returned to the NBA Finals since 2021. The team’s subsequent decisions, including the 2022-23 Kevin Durant trade and the 2023-24 Bradley Beal acquisition, have produced four straight playoff or play-in appearances but no series win past the second round. The 2025-26 Suns finished 38-44 and missed the play-in.

The mid-range, the Kobe lineage

Booker’s signature offensive move is the off-the-dribble mid-range pull-up jumper, a shot that has been substantially de-emphasized in the modern analytics-driven NBA. The Booker shot is, by stylistic comparison, almost identical to Kobe Bryant’s 2003-2010 form: same shoulder rotation, same fadeaway angle, same release trigger.

Kobe was Booker’s basketball mentor from 2014 through 2016. The two met when Booker was a Kentucky freshman; Kobe (then in his final NBA season) had reached out through a mutual friend and arranged a phone call. They met in person multiple times during Booker’s rookie year, with Kobe inviting him to summer 2016 workouts at Kobe’s Newport Beach house. Kobe died in January 2020. Booker has worn a black-and-yellow wristband in every game since.

Booker’s career mid-range field-goal percentage (47.8%) is the second-highest among active players with at least 1,000 career mid-range attempts (the leader is Chris Paul at 49.1%).

The legacy through 2026

Booker is, in 2026, 30 years old, in his eleventh NBA season, the Suns’ all-time leader in: points (16,442), three-pointers (1,488), starts (656), and games played (771). He is a six-time All-Star (2020 through 2024 plus 2026), a four-time All-NBA selection (one First Team in 2022, three Second Team), a two-time Olympic gold medalist (Tokyo 2020 played in 2021, Paris 2024), and the youngest player ever to score 70 points in an NBA game.

He has not won an NBA championship. He has not won an MVP. He has not, in any season, finished higher than fifth in MVP voting (his 2021-22 finish, the year of the 64-18 Suns and the unanimous First Team All-NBA selection). His career trajectory from 2026 forward depends entirely on the Suns’ rebuild around him plus Kevin Durant (under contract through 2026-27) and the team’s ability to add a third All-NBA-caliber player before Booker turns 33.

The 70-point game, the 2021 Finals run, the Kobe lineage, and the structural durability across ten NBA seasons (760-plus games, no major injury layoff above 25 games) are the core of what will be his eventual Hall of Fame case. The case is, by basketball-historical convention, on track. The next two to three Suns seasons will determine whether it is on track to first-ballot status or to a five-to-eight-year wait.

Gear

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Sources

• Basketball-Reference: Devin Booker.
• ESPN game recap, Suns at Celtics, March 24, 2017 (Booker 70 points).
• Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix, “Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns Finals run” (July 2021).
• The Athletic, Sam Vecenie, profile of Booker’s Kentucky season (March 2015).
• Arizona Republic, Duane Rankin, archive coverage of Booker’s Suns career.
• John Calipari and Michael Sokolove, Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out (Penguin Press, 2014).