Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker acknowledges father with switch to No. 15

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PHOENIX – For Devin Booker, the No. 15 is more than just digits on the back of a jersey.

“It’s always been a family number,” Booker told his father, Melvin, in a video released by the Phoenix Suns . “Obviously, you wore it, and I looked at you as the blueprint for success. I’ve always said that, so a new chapter to honor you and everything that you’ve done for me.”

The Phoenix Suns announced on Sunday, Father’s Day, that Booker would change his number from No. 1 to No. 15 for the upcoming NBA season.

“I never had a true meaning for wearing No. 1, even though I feel like I did a lot of good things in it,” Booker said. “People ask, ‘Why do you wear No. 1?’ because I’ve been chasing 15 my whole career.”

Basketball runs in the family. Booker’s father played collegiately at Missouri and professionally while wearing No. 15 throughout his career.

“It’s always an honor,” his father said in the video. “Your mom used to send me pictures of you playing in this jersey right here, and I always thought this number meant something to this kid. And just the fact that you’re striving to be that in that 15, I knew one, you would be a great kid. I also thought you’d be much better than me.”

The family affair also extends to Booker’s aunt.

“His sister, my auntie, also was a hooper, and she wore 15, so the number runs through the family,” Booker said. “Any opportunity that I could get my hands on, I did, and now I feel like it’s the perfect time to switch it up.”

Although Booker has spent most of his basketball career wearing “1,” dating back to his season at the University of Kentucky and through a decade in the NBA, he has always had the digits in the back of his mind.

“It’s always been 15,” Booker said. “Every video game I played where you could choose a number, whether it was NCAA football or NCAA basketball, I’d always make my player No. 15.”

After his freshman year of high school, Booker moved from the Midwest to Mississippi and attended Moss Point High School, the same school his father attended and where the No. 15 was retired.

“He wouldn’t take it out of the rafters for me,” Booker said. “He had 15 retired at Moss Point. I thought for sure I would get it. They gave him an opportunity to take it down and give it to me, and he told me I need to start my own journey.”

Following in his father’s footsteps, Booker reflected on growing up with a father who played professional basketball.

“I’m blessed to have a father that played professional,” Booker said. “I know that’s an advantage, growing up, trying to take this sport serious, so watching the highlights, the old, old highlights, of him at Moss Point, him at Missouri rocking No. 15, you know it felt like a family number.”

Moving on to college and the NBA, it took over a decade for the stars to align for him to wear 15, as teammates always had the number before he did.

While at Kentucky, teammate Willie Cauley-Stein wore it during Booker’s lone collegiate season, and veteran Markieff Morris already had 15 when he arrived in Phoenix.

While chasing after the No. 15 throughout his professional career, he got a taste of what wearing that number would be like on the world’s biggest international stage.

“When you put it on, on the big stage at the Olympics, that was the first time, watching it on TV,” his father said. “It was just an amazing feeling to watch you run down the court and not only see Devin Booker No. 15, but Devin Booker from Moss Point No. 15.”

For his father, this milestone marks more than just a number swap. It reflects the growth of his son’s legacy, which he himself has built.

“He’s always had that knack, that tenacity, the confidence to be great,” his father said. “It’s an honor as a father to watch him be special and to impact lives the way he does. To walk into that arena and see people with Booker on their back and how they cheer for him in this city is a feeling that is really hard to describe.”

After 11 seasons in the NBA, Booker looks forward to what more family history he can bring to the No. 15.

“This is after year 11, by the grace of God, hopefully this is the halfway point of my career,” Booker said. “I can do even more, and accomplish what I was really set out to do, that’s win a championship, and I hope that’s with the No. 15 on my back.”

Going into the 12th season of his NBA career, Booker is looking forward to this new chapter.

“Just continue the legacy, continue growing, hopefully people that have the No. 1 jersey, they have a different admiration for it now that I’m not wearing it, and you can think back to that was the number I wore from 18 years old to 29,” Booker said. “But now it’s a new chapter in my career that I’m looking forward to.”