9781422271520

three-pointers or slicing into the heavily congested areas around the basket, he’s prone to stockpiling points in a multitude of ways. Nifty Numbers An obvious choice for the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team in 2016, a season in which he became the fourth youngest player to notch 1,000 career points, Booker has been trampling the NBA record books ever since. He torched the Boston Celtics for 70 points in 2017, just the sixth player in league history to reach that lofty mark. The following season he blew past 4,000 career points, the third youngest to do so behind only LeBron James and Kevin Durant. In 2019, he became the youngest player in league history to record back-to-back games of 50 or more points. During the pandemic, when the NBA shifted all its games to the Orlando Bubble, he was beyond brilliant, averaging more than 30 points a game while leading the Suns to the only undefeated record in the bubble (8-0). In 2021, he pushed Phoenix to the brink of an NBA title and then spent part of his summer in Tokyo helping Team USA win a gold medal. Words of Wisdom During Booker’s rookie season, he had a post-game conversation with Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant, who would close out his Hall of Fame career less than a month later. Bryant told Booker to “be legendary” and inscribed a pair of his shoes for him with that message. The conversation meant so much to Booker that he later got those two words tattooed on the inside of his right forearm. Judging by the numbers, Booker continues to put up and the trajectory that the Suns are on with him leading the way, he is certainly living up to those powerful words.

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Chapter 1: Greatest Moments