Suns' 2017-2018 season

Scott Bordow | The Republic | azcentral.com

Michael Chow/azcentral sports

Devin Booker has this secret. Well, it’s not a secret, really, because it plays out in public at every Phoenix Suns game.

It’s just that Booker hasn’t told many people why he does it. His mother, he thinks. Maybe his older brother, Davon Wade. But that’s it.

“Nobody has really asked about it,” he says. “You’re one of the first people I’ve ever told.”

A day later, Booker’s father, Melvin Booker, is on the phone.

“Your voicemail kind of gave me chills,” Melvin says. “I didn’t know. I never asked him.”

The secret?

Actually, it’s a tribute. To two people.

Booker’s grandmother and a man named Lil Mike.

The routine

Watch Booker as he steps onto the court Tuesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He’ll tap his chest with his right hand, bring his hand to his lips as if he’s blowing a kiss and then point to the sky.

It’s a routine he has repeated every game of his NBA career. Booker is honoring his late grandmother, Jannice, who died when he was 3 years old, and Lil Mike, who was the longtime best friend of his father until he died early in Booker’s junior year of high school.

Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

“I know if they were still around they’d love to be here,” Booker said. “They’d be a part of everything that was going on.”

Booker doesn’t remember much about Jannice, his maternal grandmother. He does recall spending days at Jannice’s house in Grand Rapids, Mich., with his brother, Davon, while his mother worked. Melvin Booker was pursuing a professional basketball career internationally.

“We would go over there every day,” Booker said. “She was very caring, from what I can remember. Me and my brother would always want to be at her house. We spent a lot of time with her.”

The one clear memory Booker has of Jannice is of the bikes she gave him and Davon one year.

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“We had a green and blue one,” Booker said. “Mine was the blue one. It was smaller than my brother’s, that I do remember. I think it had training wheels but I'm not sure.”

(Booker's mother, Veronica Gutierrez, declined comment, explaining that she doesn't do interviews so she can keep her life private.)

Booker moved to Mississippi before his sophomore year in high school to live with his father, and that’s when he became close to Lil Mike, who got his nickname because his father was named Mike. Lil Mike and Melvin Booker were childhood friends – “I’ve known him as far as I can remember,” Melvin said – and he soon became a fixture in Devin’s life.

“He used to be at the house all the time,” Booker said. “We’d play pool together, talk about sports and other stuff. He taught me a lot of things.”

Lil Mike had a big personality. He’d be the loudest fan in the gym during Booker’s games at Moss Point High in Moss Point, Miss. If Booker scored on an opponent, Lil Mike would let them know they couldn’t stop him.

“Mike was a character,” Booker said. “If he was around it would kind of be a LaVar (Ball) situation. You would hear him a lot. But he was just a good guy. High character. And totally opposite of my dad. My dad was kind of quiet. Mike was the loud one that had to make sure everybody knows he’s there.”

Melvin Booker said Lil Mike was Booker’s biggest fan.

“My friends and I talk all the time about how Mike would be with the success Devin is having,” Melvin said. “He would let the whole world know.”

One day, during Booker’s junior year, he and and his father drove by a motorcycle accident on their way home. They didn’t think twice about it until Melvin got a call saying Lil Mike had been involved in the accident. He called Lil Mike’s family members and they told him Lil Mike had died.

He was 41 years old. Booker was with his father when they found out.

“That was Devin’s first time dealing with the death of someone so close to him,” Melvin said. “It affected him pretty good. Mike was just like family to us. The day of the funeral Devin cried really, really hard. It was the first time I had seen him like that.”

Melvin Booker never formally chose Lil Mike to be Booker’s godfather. But to this day that’s how Booker refers to him.

“He was a big part of my life,” Booker said. “I was really close to him.”

During his single season (2014-15) at Kentucky, Booker wrote “RIP Lil Mike” and “Jannice” on the inside of the tongues of the sneakers he wore to games. He still sometimes thinks of them when the national anthem is played before games, and he never forgets to memorialize them when he steps onto the floor.

“That’s who I do it for,” Booker said. “I’m blessed and fortunate enough to be playing the sport I love as my job. Obviously we make good money and everyone doesn’t get to be in this situation. So for someone to say, ‘That’s my grandson’ or ‘That’s my godson,’ I think they would have loved that.