Paul Coro

The Republic | azcentral.com

The Suns decided that Devin Booker would be the ideal franchise representative for the NBA draft lottery on May 17.

His next move backed up why.

Before most home games of his rookie season, Booker interacted with a girl who arrived two hours early with her family to watch him warm up. Once he knew he would be the Suns’ draft lottery representative, Booker told team officials that he wanted to bring the teenage girl with Down syndrome and her family to the draft lottery in New York City with him. From there, the team hustled to identify the family and Booker posted an Instagram video inviting Jenna Warren, her mother and stepfather, calling them “the biggest Suns fans I know.”

“She’s so excited that she can’t contain herself,” said Jenna’s mother, Gracie Colvin of Phoenix. “She wants to go tomorrow.”

Jenna's family just had arrived on a trip to Ontario, Calif., on Friday when they pulled over to record her reaction as she watched Booker’s video for the first time.

“That’s cool,” Jenna shrieked as she applauded in sign language, thrusting her arms up in celebration by the end of a video on her Instagram account (jennatude1).

It was all the more appreciated for Jenna and her family, given all that the 16-year-old has endured. She has been through eight surgeries, including two open-heart operations. Times only have become more trying of late with surgery to rebuild her eardrum in January, her father’s death in February and a recent hospitalization for an infection.

“It seems like we are always in the hospital,” Colvin said.

The Suns always have been a source of enjoyment for Jenna, especially since her mother and her stepfather, Ray Colvin, became season-ticket holders in 2010. Jenna’s home bedroom is filled with Suns memorabilia and she claims Suns forward T.J. Warren as a brother for their shared surname but she always favors one player – from Steve Nash to Goran Dragic to Booker.

BICKLEY: Suns' Devin Booker changing the future

Her family arrived at 5 p.m. for 7 p.m. home games this season to allow Jenna to watch warmups from the courtside area across from the Suns bench. Booker walked over to greet Jenna at almost every game since October. When she leaves her seat to look at him from courtside before tip-off or at halftime, he waves to her.

“He has such a good heart,” Colvin said. “He’s amazing. He’s always been so kind to her that she’s more drawn to him.”

The Suns customarily warm up before games on the side of the court where Jenna watches. In a rare instance when the visiting team chose to start the first half on that Suns bench side, Booker was warming up on the opposite hoop when he called Jenna over to him. Booker, also still a teenager at 19, bonded with Jenna more there, not knowing the full back story of how Jenna was on an oxygen tank until she was 3, had an infected Pacemaker for her fourth heart surgery and also underwent hernia surgery.

RELATED: Suns center Alex Len saves friend from drowning

Her Instagram and Twitter account name, @jennatude1, comes from the "Jennatude" nickname that nurses put on her incubator as a baby. She was not supposed to survive until her first birthday.

“She’s a tough little girl,” her mother said. “And she’s always happy and full of life.”

The family will have a three-day trip to New York and stay at the draft-lottery headquarters, making Booker’s legion of fans jealous. Jenna's Twitter profile now reads, "Love my Suns and Bookers my baby! We are PHX :) NBA draft lottery with Booker bound! Here I come NY!"

“Jenna doesn’t realize what she has,” her mother said. “She’s so excited. But if she only knew, girls would die for this.”

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