Dan Bickley

The Republic | azcentral.com

Devin Booker is the future of the Suns. His charisma is off the charts. His popularity is staggering. It makes perfect sense that a life-size cutout of the NBA star is currently the focal point of a second-grade classroom.

Until you learn that school is located deep in the heart of Texas.

“Whenever my kids make a shot or do something exciting, they celebrate by saying, 'Booker!'” said Kristeena Reiser, a teacher at John C. Blazier Elementary School in Austin. “They all have lines in their haircuts now. It’s crazy.”

This story speaks to Booker’s growing status among American athletes, particularly young basketball fans. He’s fresh, different, exuberant, cocky, self-empowered and capable of mind-boggling feats. Like becoming just the sixth player in league history to score 70 or more points in a single game.

During the 2016-17 regular season, it was common for Valley fans to show up early at Talking Stick Resort Arena and take pictures of iconic opponents during warmups, from LeBron James to Russell Westbrook. That will soon be the case with Booker whenever he shows up at visiting arenas.

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This tale also begins with Reiser, 30, who grew up as a diehard Mavericks fans. She loves basketball. She uses sports as a classroom diversion, a way to lighten the mood, a way to relate and resonate with her students. But she encountered a small problem over the past school year.

“My kids kept telling me, ‘Ms. Reiser, your team is kind of terrible,'" she said. “My favorite player is (Mavs star) Dirk Nowitzki. But when I showed them videos of Dirk, they found him kind of boring. I did the same with (San Antonio star) Kawhi Leonard, and he’s even more fundamentally boring.”

So Reiser tried a different approach. She introduced her students to players outside of Texas. She asked them to look beyond the gravitational pull of the Warriors and Cavaliers. She shared her frustration with the NBA, where the best players seemed to be clustered on the best teams.

When the discussion turned to Booker, something just clicked.

“Devin is young. He’s African-American and Latino, just like most of my students,” Reiser said. “And they really like his presence on the court. He celebrates like a young kid, and they really like that. And once he hit that 70-point thing, they just went crazy.”

Reiser promptly ordered the cardboard cutout of Booker and placed it in her classroom. Her kids adopted him as their official mascot. And when they continued to excel in the classroom, posting a 100-percent passing grade in reading for the entire school year, she asked what they wanted as a reward.

They wanted to meet their new idol.

Reiser responded with a social media campaign asking Booker to come and read a book to the entire classroom, blowing away a player who isn’t old enough to drink.

“It means a lot to me,” Booker said on Tuesday. “And what makes it really special is that this didn’t happen in Phoenix. It wasn’t Michigan, where I’m from. It wasn’t Mississippi, where I’m from. It was Texas, and I had no idea kids that young in Austin were looking up to me as a role model and idolizing me. That’s unreal.

“It’s bigger than the game itself. It affects me deeply. But it also speaks to how I act and conduct myself, on the court and off. That’s very important to me.”

Along the way, Reiser has encountered some hard questions. Her kids have asked if it’s OK to attend college for just one year, like Booker did at Kentucky. Parents were forced to tell their kids they can’t stay up late to watch the Suns on television. Fellow teachers wondered about the heavy amount of basketball discussion in a second-grade classroom, questions that were quickly mitigated by the performance of Reiser’s students.

“In our classroom, we talk about never giving up and never setting limits,” Reiser said. “And during interviews, (Booker) speaks to that every time. After that game in Boston, he said he’s not going to stop at 70 (points). My kids are like, ‘What?’ He’s really young, he has fun on the court and he smiles all the time. He’s a crazy-good role model.”

MORE:Is Devin Booker the Valley's next big star?

Booker isn’t sure if his immediate schedule has room for a trip to Austin. But in the short-term, he’s going to send goody bags that include autographed pictures for every kid in the class.

“I was one of those kids who grew up idolizing basketball players,” Booker said. “It all starts on the court. I have to be the best player I can be, and that starts with turning around a franchise. But it goes way beyond that.

“When I was younger, I looked up to a guy named Drew Neitzel, who played at Michigan State. He hosted a lot of camps. He was heavily involved in the Grand Rapids community. I remember when I got a signature from him it was like getting an autograph from Michael Jordan. He signed my shirt and I wore it to school the very next day. I’ve never told him that, but I look forward to sharing that with him in the near future.”

A great story. And proof that you’re never too young to learn, lead or serve as a role model to a classroom full of adoring children.

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Reach Bickley at dan.bickley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8253. Follow him on twitter.com/dan.bickley. Listen to “Bickley and Marotta” weekdays from 12-2 p.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.