In the summer following his sophomore year, Booker played in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League and participated in the Elite 100 Camp, the LeBron James King's Academy Camp, and the Kevin Durant Nike Skills Camp. In the announcement, the paper reported that Booker held scholarship offers from Ole Miss, Alabama, Georgetown, Michigan and South Alabama. For the year, Booker averaged 22.8 points per game and was named the South Mississippi Player of the Year by the Sun Herald, becoming just the second sophomore to be awarded the honor. Wayne County focused their defense on Booker, holding him to a single, first-quarter free throw, en route to a 57–37 victory that ended Moss Point's season. In the championship game against Pascagoula High School, Booker was held to single-digit scoring (8) for only the second time in the season as Moss Point lost 48–32, setting up an away game with defending state champion Wayne County High School in the first round of the South State playoffs. īooker was limited to just 14 points, with no field goals made in the second half, in a 57–55 win over Gautier High School in the opening round of the Division 7-5A tournament. At that time, his father told reporters that Booker was drawing interest from Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Florida, Alabama, Georgetown, Michigan and Missouri. He followed up that performance with 32 points, including a game-winning three-pointer, against Murrah High School and was named 's Southeast Player of the Week. In the Laurel MLK Shootout, Booker scored 54 points against Northeast Jones High School, falling nine shy of Litterial Green's Moss Point record for most points in a game, set in 1988. By early January, Press-Register sportswriter Creg Stephenson opined, "Sophomore guard Devin Booker has developed into one of the top players on the coast in his first season with the Tigers' varsity, averaging 22.7 points per game." In December, he hit a buzzer beater from just beyond half court to beat Harrison Central High School, improving Moss Point's record to 4–6 on the year. In his team's fifth game of the season-a 52–32 loss to Gulfport High School-Booker scored more points (17) than the rest of his teammates combined (15). He enrolled at Moss Point High School, where his father was hired as an assistant coach, in August 2011. High school career Sophomore yearĪfter playing for the freshman, junior varsity and varsity basketball teams during his freshman year at Grandville High School in Michigan, Booker moved to Mississippi to live with his father after the latter's retirement from professional basketball. During his time in middle school, Booker became friends with future fellow NBA players D'Angelo Russell and Tyler Ulis. Booker was taught by his father that having basketball IQ was just as important as natural athleticism. At age 12 while visiting him in Milan, he played one-on-one with Danilo Gallinari, then teammate of his father's at Olimpia Milano. He visited his father regularly during the summer. Booker was born and raised in Grand Rapids, living with his mother, who is reportedly of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent while his African-American father pursued a professional basketball career internationally. His parents met while his father was playing basketball for the Continental Basketball Association's Grand Rapids Hoops in Gutiérrez's hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Olympic team in Tokyo.īooker is the son of Veronica Gutiérrez, a cosmetologist, and Melvin Booker, who was named the 1994 Big Eight Player of the Year while a point guard at Missouri. Booker also won a gold medal on the 2020 U.S. ![]() ![]() The following season, he was named to the All-NBA First Team and helped lead the Suns to a franchise record of 64 wins. ![]() The son of former basketball player Melvin Booker, Devin is a three-time All-Star and helped the Suns reach the NBA Finals in 2021. In 2019, at 22 years old, Booker became the youngest player in NBA history with consecutive 50-point games. In 2017, at 20 years old, he became the youngest player to score over 60 points in a game, finishing with 70 against the Boston Celtics. After playing college basketball for one season with the Kentucky Wildcats, Booker was selected by the Suns in the first round of the 2015 NBA draft with the 13th overall pick. Devin Armani Booker (born October 30, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
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