Paul Coro

azcentral sports

Fifty-one times last season, an NBA arena announcer bellowed “from Kentucky” when Devin Booker was introduced in the Suns starting lineup.

Booker was "from the Phoenix Suns" for other honors such as being a representative at the NBA draft lottery or participating in NBA All-Star weekend’s Rising Stars Challenge and 3-Point Shootout.

Booker rapidly arrived at success in college and the NBA, but his talent and temperament draw inspiration from other places and people over his first 17 years.

LeBron James predicts an All-Star future for Booker. Kobe Bryant told Booker to be legendary. NBA general managers voted Booker the leader to be the league's breakout player this season.

That is where Booker is headed.

He is from a suburb of Grand Rapids, Mich., and the small Gulf Coast town of Moss Point, Miss. He is from Veronica Gutierrez, who raised her three children on her own, and Melvin Booker, a father who ended his European basketball career to coach him. He is from Davon Wade, an older brother who fed Booker’s fire, and Mya Powell, a younger sister whose perpetual smile amid special needs kept his world in perspective.

“I know where I’m at right now and I know where I’m trying to get,” Booker said.

2016-17 SUNS PREVIEW:

Booker is a Suns starting guard and their most popular player, even though he will not turn 20 until four days after the season opener. He is prominent on Suns billboards as well as opponent scouting reports after an All-Rookie season, but such status was never a given. At every step, he demanded the attention.

That began with his childhood in the eastern Michigan town of Grandville. Booker was fearless as the NBA’s youngest player last season because he grew up battling Wade, 3 ½ years older, and his friends.

Booker drew competitiveness from duels with Davon and paired that fire with the work ethic of his mother, a cosmetologist who prioritized her children while Booker’s father played professionally in Europe for 13 years. Devin Armani Booker was born after his parents had a relationship during Melvin’s 1995-96 season with Grand Rapids’ CBA team.

“Davon always said I wasn’t good enough,” Booker said. “Too young, too little at the time. But I always competed. When he was bigger, we used to always get in fights and he’d always win. He was bigger. It was unfair. Things have changed now.”

The brothers played relentlessly on a portable hoop they rolled into the street. Booker could mimic Wade's abilities and hang with the older players.

Booker was just as good at football but they bonded over basketball. In second grade, Booker played on Wade’s three-on-three team because they needed him to win the tournament. Booker's losses and hard knocks were kept to the neighborhood asphalt.

“I can think of countless times he’d go inside mad or whining,” said Wade, who lives with Booker in Tempe. “He just wanted to beat me so bad. He’s been so competitive for his entire life. He couldn’t beat me growing up but the gap closed quick.“

Personality evolution

All the while, Booker’s personality was refined by his sister. Powell, now 14, has microdeletion syndrome, due to the deletion of several genes, that slows her learning ability and social growth.

Powell communicates well, using her daily “Devin Booker” Google searches to tell the family stats that they do not even know. Did you know that James, Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard are the only teenagers to score 1,000 points other than her big brother?

“If I win or lose, it’s always, ‘Good job, brother,’" Booker said. “She’s always happy no matter what. Always seeing a smile on her face makes me feel happy.”

And compassionate. Booker befriended Phoenix teenage fan Jenna Warren, who has Down syndrome, when she arrived early to Suns games to watch him warm up. He always had a wave, greeting or hug for her, building a relationship to the point that he invited Warren and her family to join him at the NBA draft lottery.

Booker has needed his positive attitude because his dreams of following idols Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton did not match the vision others had for him – until his father became a more prominent fixture.

“It feels like he was always overlooked,” Wade said.

Booker’s Grand Rapids basketball club initially put him on its “B” team. He started high school on the freshman team although many already saw he was the best player in the school.

At that point, Melvin Booker’s pro career that had three brief NBA stints and success in Italy, Russia and Turkey was winding down. Devin had spent summers with him in Mississippi and visited him over a spring break in Milan, playing one-on-one there with Denver's Danilo Gallinari.

Devin was getting college interest as a freshman but Melvin pushed to have Devin move to Moss Point with him to tap his potential. Devin did not want to leave his friends. Gutierrez cried all summer and all the way to the airport.

“You have to take him to the next level,” she told Melvin, a Big Eight Player of the Year at Missouri.

Now, Devin was doubted as the suburban shooter who would not be able to hang at the inner-city school where his father became assistant coach.

The Suns phenom with diverse skills and a cocky but fun confidence grew a great deal in those three years at Moss Point. The ball-handling, passing and creative scoring developed out of being double- and triple-teamed when his surrounding talent was good enough for only one winning season. The improvement came from hours of father-son drills and workouts. The court swagger came from playing up in age again.

Trash-talk upgrade

Melvin, 5 inches shorter at 6 feet 1, would match up with his son in pickup games with Melvin's friends to test his weaknesses. The turning point came when Devin was 16 and they clashed over a call.

“I got upset so I got even rougher with him,” said Melvin, 44, who moved to Scottsdale last year. “I gave him a forearm in his chest. I wanted to see how he would respond. I’d been preaching for him to not back down to anyone. I could see the look in his face, like, ‘Should I go at my dad?’ He picked up his aggression. He scored on me that play and let me know I couldn’t guard him. In my mind, I was thinking, ‘Yeah, this is the way I want him to be.’"

Devin learned Southern manners, but those neighborhood men taught Devin another level of trash talk that he uses today. He loves to engage nearly as much as he hates to lose, whether the sport is basketball or table tennis.

Before his sophomore year, Devin torched one of Davon's friends in a pickup game in Michigan and let him know about it afterward.

“Just talk to me when you get an offer,” the Grand Valley State-bound senior said in a phrase that cracks the brothers up to this day.

Booker did all right, becoming a McDonald’s All-American who committed to Kentucky. At a game several coaches visited, Booker impressed college coaches most by taking one shot. He played the right way.

His basketball acumen had the benefit of three-hour drives with his father to and from a Montgomery, Ala., club. Booker had well-rounded talents when he got to Kentucky, but the Wildcats had a wealth of talent that made him a bench player and role shooter.

His athleticism and upside was doubted again and he fell to the 13th pick for the Suns. Early in Phoenix, he was out of the rotation often. His talent could not be denied any more than his charisma.

“Once he finds that weakness, he exploits it every time,” Suns coach Earl Watson said.

The momentum went into being chosen for USA Basketball’s Select Team and backing up his fanfare by showing pick-and-roll and ball-handling improvement in the NBA Summer League and this preseason.

“He hasn’t let that get to his head,” Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough said. “His work ethic has been off the charts. He’s handled everything very well – the increased attention. He’s a very mature guy for his age. He’s got a great perspective for things.”

The power of perspective made Booker as competitive as his brother, as amiable as his sister, as dedicated as his mother and as crafty as his father, with a Grandville grind and a Moss Point swagger.

Now he is being told to wait on winning because he and the Suns are too young.

Rebuilding? Booker said the Suns are built. If so, it is in his likeness on billboards, commercials and jerseys.

“Every time I see them, I am at a loss for words,” Booker said. “I always dreamed of that. I always wanted that. I worked as hard as I could to get to this point. I haven’t made it all the way but I made it to a great point. But I want a lot, lot more.”

Reach Paul Coro at paul.coro@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-2470. Follow him at www.twitter.com/paulcoro.