PHOENIX (USA) – He just became the Phoenix Suns all-time leader scorer. Yet, he has to learn to be patient.
His time will come. That’s a certainty. But Devin Booker will have to wait a little longer before fully stepping into the spotlight. He is arguably the biggest NBA All-Star snub of 2025. And even when Anthony Davis got hurt, Kyrie Irving got the replacement invitation.
Unfortunately for Devin Booker, the same was true just a few months earlier, back in Paris 2024 with USA Basketball.
No player could have stolen the Olympic limelight from a trio of legends destined for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame once their playing days are over.
Yet USA coach Steve Kerr, with most of the attention during the team's run to a gold medal at a fifth straight Olympics going to LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant, left no doubt about the importance of Booker to the cause last summer in France.
As his final press conference drew to a close at the Olympics in Paris after USA's 98-87 Gold Medal Game triumph over France, Kerr let scribes in one of his important thoughts.
Our unsung MVP
"Devin Booker is an incredible basketball player," he said. "Nobody asked about him. He was our unsung MVP. I just wanted to say that."
Everything that Booker, a member of the Tokyo Olympic Games gold medal-winning USA team, did last summer in France helped pave the way for the country's latest success, which was reflected by the Phoenix Suns star's best plus/minus (plus-130) on the team.
He had 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists in the Final, while averaging 11.7 points per game, which was forth best on the team, along with 3.3 assists, and 2.2 3-pointers per contest.
In terms of minutes per game played, only James (24.5), Curry (23.3) and Durant (22.2) averaged more than Booker (22.0)
No one shot it better from three-point range than Booker (56.5 percent), which is saying something since sharpshooters Curry (47.8 percent) and Durant (51.9 percent) were on the team.
Booker let the game come to him. He did what he needed to do for the USA to win. It's not so much that he tried not to get in the way of the aforementioned trio.
Booker just showed off his high basketball IQ by contributing where it was needed on offense, usually in a timely fashion, and by playing exceptionally hard and well on defense.
Players of national teams, especially the elite ones, must check their egos at the door and do what's needed to win. It's the only thing that matters. Since the 2008 Olympics, USA players always show up with that attitude, prepared to make sacrifices in order to get to the top of the podium.
Since returning to the NBA, Booker has played at his usual elite level, averaging 24.6 points, 6.8 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game, yet the Suns are 12th in the 15-team Western Conference. Phoenix are two wins adrift of tenth-placed San Antonio, who occupy the last play-in spot for the post-season.
Earlier in the NBA season, Booker was asked about Kerr's "unsung MVP" comment.
"It meant everything," he said to Andscape. "No one really asked him. That was probably something that was weighing on his heart throughout the whole process. I said it a year prior what I wanted to do for that team and what we want to do for the country.
It was bigger than all of us
"It was way bigger than all of us. To pull through was something we will talk about for the rest of our lives."
Booker, 28, clearly has designs on going for another gold medal at the Olympics. During the Summer Games, he did a vlog and is heard saying to young USA teammate Anthony Edwards, "I’ll see you in L.A., boy."
In three and a half years, if Booker continues to excel and blossom into one of the game's greats, Kerr can rest assured there will be plenty of questions about his "unsung MVP."
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